BX  6333  -^38  A3  igAS 

Haldeman,  Isaac  nassey, 

Tei^sermons  on  the  second 
comins  of  our  Lord  Jesus 


TEN   SERMONS   ON  THE 
SECOND   COMING 

of 
Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 

Preached  in  the  First  Baptist  Church,  New  York  City 
from  October  15  to  December  17,  1916 

BY  THE  PASTOR 

I.  m.'haldeman,  d.d. 

Author  of  Christian  Science  in  the  Light  of  Holy  Scripture,  How  to 

Study  the  Bible,  The  Second  Coming  of  Christ   Pre-Millennial 

and  Imminent,  The  Signs  of  the  Times,  Christ,  Christianity 

and  the  Bibk^  The  Mission  of  the  Church  in  the  World, 

Millennial   Dsvviiism,   Two   Men    and    Russellism, 

Could  Our   Lord   have  Sinned,    Does    it   make 

*ny  Difference,  What   is   it  to  Believe  on 

Jesus,    Why  are   we   to   Believe   The 

Bible   is    inspired,    etc.,    etc. 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London    and    Edinburgh 


I 

OUR  LORD  JFSUS  CHRIST  IS  COMING  TO  THIS 
WORLD  A  SECOND  TIME 


OUR  LORD  JESUS  CHRIST 

IS  COMING  TO  THIS  WORLD 

A  SECOND  TIME 

By  Rev.  L  M.  Haldeman,  D.D. 

OU  will  find  my  text  in  Saint  Paul's' 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  ninth  chapter, 
twenty-eighth  verse: 

"Unto  them  that  look  for  Him  shall  He  ap- 
pear the  Second  time." 

I  desire  to  begin  a  series  of  sermons  on  the 
SECOND  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Many  long  years  before  I  became  Pastor  of 
this  Church,  it  was  my  privilege  to  present  the 
truth,  and  at  a  time  when  my  voice  was  almost 
the  only  one  in  the  land  that  upheld  it.  In  my 
extended  pastorate  here  I  have  preached  it  in 
season  and  out  of  season;  so  that  almost  every 
sermon,  exegesis  and  exposition  has  centered 
itself  in  it  or  proceeded  forth  from  it.  I  de- 
sire to  preach  upon  the  theme  again,  not 
only  in  its  complete  and  sequential  order,  but 
in    relation    to    all   dispensational    and   proph- 


6  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

etic  truth.  I  am  led  to  do  so  because  al- 
though many  are  now  bearing  testimony  to  the 
return  of  our  Lord,  the  ignorance  concerning  it 
is  still  widespread  and  abysmal.  There  are 
Christians  who  actually  read  their  Bible  and  yet 
statement  after  statement  which  ought  to  gleam 
and  scintillate  with  power  to  awaken  interest 
passes  across  their  vision  or  through  the  mind 
and  leaves  no  trace.  The  average  minister  with 
an  open  Bible  before  him  knows  nothing  about 
it, — ignores  it, — is  afraid  to  preach  it,  or  when 
he  does  not  pervert  it,  radically  rejects  it. 

The  prejudice  against  the  doctrine  is  amaz- 
ingly great.  It  is  said  to  be  non-essential  (and 
here  I  desire  to  speak  parenthetically  and  say  to 
you  that  of  all  foolish,  absurd  and  actually 
stupid  things  uttered  by  the  tongue  of  Christians 
or  written  by  pen,  nothing  is  more  excuseless 
than  this  attempted  arraignment  of  "non-essen- 
tials." If  the  Bible  be  the  revelation  of  God,  as 
He  is  the  great  economist  and  never  wastes  or 
does  anything  that  is  unnecessary,  it  is  evident 
He  could  not  and  would  not  introduce  into  His 
infallible  Book  anything  that  was  not  essential. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  7 

Whatever  statement  or  doctrine  therefore  may 
be  in  the  Bible,  however  apparently  inconse- 
quential and  insignificant,  is,  nevertheless,  es- 
sential. Since  this  doctrine  of  the  Second  Com- 
ing is  very  manifestly  in,  and  a  remarkable  part 
of,  the  Bible  it  ought  to  be  evident,  to  say  the 
least,  that  the  term  "non-essential"  cannot  in  any 
wise  be  applied  to  it.) 

It  is  held  by  many  to  be  sporadic,  the  outcome 
of  an  unsettled  state  of  theological  definition  in 
the  early  centuries ;  that  it  has  been  handed  down 
by  ignorant,  or  half  educated,  or  unequally  bal- 
anced minds.  The  man  therefore  who  in  this  hour 
of  wheels,  of  machinery,  of  delicate  mathematical 
constructions  and  the  tidal  sweep  of  materialism 
and  sensuousness,  dares  to  stand  forth  and  preach 
the  SECOND  COMING  of  Christ  is  thought 
to  be  mentally  uneven,  the  rider  of  a  hobby,  up  in 
the  air,  and,  at  the  very  best — only  a  light  and 
easy  visionary.  His  sermons  are  supposed  to 
have  in  them  little  that  is  practical,  much  that  is 
sensational ;  and  that  their  tendency  is  to  disturb 
the  Church,  bring  about  schism  and  lead  those 
Christians  who  accept  the  doctrine  to  go  ofif  at  a 


8  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

i 

tangent.  The  study  of  it,  it  is  said,  gives  birth  to 
foolish  vagaries,  to  grotesque  schemes  of  inter- 
pretation, encourages  many  to  look  upon  them- 
selves as  certified  prophets,  and  gives  play  to 
hectic  and  irresponsible  imagination,  rather  than 
the  cultivation  of  a  sane  and  sober  application  of 
the  principles  and  rules  of  a  daily  and  dutiful 
life. 

And  yet — in  the  face  of  all  this,  it  is  a  fact 
wholly  beyond  dispute  that  of  all  the  wondrous 
things  in  this  book  written  in  letters  of  light,  re- 
splendent with  the  glory  of  God  and  resonant 
with  the  divine  music,  not  one  of  them,  not  the 
fiat  creation  of  the  world,  the  stupendous  fall  of 
man,  the  birth  of  Christ,  His  death  and  resurrec- 
tion, none  of  these  immense  facts  occupies  the 
space  or  receives  such  mention  as  the  SECOND 
COMING. 

The  First  Advent  is  without  question,  basic, 
fundamental,  so  much  so  that  apart  from  it — 
Christianity  could  not  even  find  letters  to  spell  its 
name — and  yet — foundational  as  it  is — it  is  al- 
most insignificant  when  compared  to  the  men- 
tion of  the  Second  Advent. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  9 

Neither  the  tongue  of  angels,  nor  men  can  fit- 
tingly describe  the  measure,  the  marvel  and  the 
glory  of  the  cross;  even  the  Holy  Ghost  with  all 
His  measureless  powers  finds  Himself  limited  by 
the  limitations  of  human  vocabulary  when  He 
seeks  to  portray  it.  In  all  the  speech  of  men 
there  is  no  word  so  great  as  this  word,  "Atone- 
ment." It  is  the  revelation  of  the  genius  and  the 
wisdom  of  God,  of  His  law  and  His  love,  of  His 
justice  and  mercy,  His  hatred  of  sin  and  His  love 
of  the  sinner.  His  rejection  of  merit  and  His  gift 
of  grace.  It  is  a  revelation  of  how  He  has  found 
a  way  in  which  He  can  be  just  and  yet  a  justifier 
of  the  ungodly:  and  yet — that  word  "Atone- 
ment" occurs  but  once  in  the  New  Testament, 
and  there  should  not  be  translated  atonement — 
but  "reconciliation,"  the  consequence  of  atone- 
ment; but  the  statement  concerning  the  Second 
Coming  of  Christ  occurs  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment— owce  in  every  twenty  verses. 

It  begins  with  the  beginning. 

In  the  first  chapter  of- Genesis  God  speaks  and 
sun  and  moon  and  stars,  constellations,  systems 
of  constellations,  and  measureless  nebulae  sw^eep 


10  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

forward  in  that  infinite  harmony  which  the  si- 
lence of  the  skies  proclaims.  In  the  second  chap- 
ter man  is  formed  from  the  dust  of  the  earth,  his 
soul  kindled  with  the  flame  of  the  divine  breath. 
In  the  third  chapter  he  sins,  he  falls  and  the 
whole  race  goes  down  in  the  wreck  of  his  sin. 
Side  by  side  with  his  sin  and  woe  is  the  promise 
of  redemption.  The  first  woman  stands  forth  in 
all  the  beauty  of  her  fresh  creation,  but  stands 
there  with  the  shame  of  her  sin,  and  as  she  listens 
to  the  voice  of  judgment  which  condemns  her 
husband  and  herself  to  go  forth  as  v/anderers  in 
the  earth,  learns,  not  only  that  the  serpent  shall 
bruise  her  seed,  the  foreseen  and  promised  Re- 
deemer, but  this  very  Redeemer  shall  bruise 
the  serpent's  head.  Turn  to  the  last  chapter 
of  Saint  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  you 
will  find  the  serpent  (that  old  serpent  which 
is  the  Devil  and  Satan)  is  to  be  bruised  be- 
neath the  feet  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  at  His 
Second  Coming:  and  if  you  will  turn  still  fur- 
ther to  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  Revelation 
you  will  behold  a  scenic  description  of  that  event 
in  the  hour  when  the  door  in  heaven  opens  and 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  T  i 

the  Son  of  God,  as  the  Word  of  God,  as  King 
of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  is  seen  coming  down 
the  slant  of  heaven  with  the  thundrous  echo  of 
His  steeds  of  judgment,  followed  by  the  throng- 
ing armies  of  His  righteousness  clad  saints.  He 
lays  hold  on  Satan,  binds  him  with  a  great  chain, 
casts  him  into  the  bottomless  pit  and  bruises  him 
beneath  His  heel  for  a  thousand  years;  and  thus 
it  is  evident  that  side  by  side  with  this  first  an- 
nouncement of  the  First  Advent  in  that  far  away 
Eden  time  is  the  first  announcement  of  the  SEC- 
OND. 

In  the  sixth  chapter  of  Genesis  you  will  see  the 
flood  gates  of  heaven  opened,  the  fountains  of 
the  great  deep  broken  up  and  all  but  eight  of 
a  guilty  world  swept  away,  while  over  the  rush 
and  terror  of  the  seething  waters  the  voice  of 
the  Son  of  God  is  heard  saying,  "But  as  the  days 
of  Noah,  so  shall  also  the  Coming  of  the  Son  of 
man  be;",  and  when  next  you  stand  upon  some 
mountain  height  and  see  the  line  of  shells  de- 
posited there  by  invading  waves  which  once 
drowned  all  the  high  hills  and  made  the  swing- 
ing globe  a  dark  and  watery  waste,  pick  up  that 


12  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

shell,  hear  in  it  still  the  sound  of  the  receding 
deep  and  let  it  repeat  to  you,  that  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  Noah,  so  shall  it  be  when  the  Son  of  Man 
comes:  and  let  the  flood  proclaim  to  you  the  Son 
of  God  is  Coming  a  SECOND  time. 

If  it  be  your  privilege  to  journey  to  Palestine, 
go  yonder  to  that  Dead  Sea  whose  every  wave 
rolls  over  the  spot  where  the  cities  of  the  plain, 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  went  down  in  the  wrath 
of  Him  whose  breath  like  a  fiery  flame  consumed 
them;  and  above  the  depths  where  the  buried 
cities  lie  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  saying, 
"as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Lot  (in  Sodom)  even 
thus  shall  it  be  in  the  day  when  the  Son  of  Man 
is  revealed;"  and  let  the  Dead  Sea  as  the  burial 
place  of  a  dead  city  and  the  judgment  tomb  of 
indescribable  vice,  tell  out  with  its  bituminous 
swirl  and  swish  that  the  Son  of  God  is  coming  a 
Second  time  and  coming  not  only  with  grace  but 
with  vengeance  in  His  heart. 

Not  only  is  the  Second  Coming  portrayed  in 
the  open  statements  and  quivering  accents  of  in- 
spired prophets,  but  in  the  pictured  prophecies 
of  illuminating  types,  living  figures  and  colorful 
symbols. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  13 

Abraham  under  the  command  of  God  took  his 
son  to  the  top  of  the  mount  which  he  reached 
after  a  three  days'  journey,  laid  him  upon  the 
prepared  altar,  lifted  his  knife  to  slay  that  un- 
resisting son  (doing  so  in  the  confidence  God 
would  raise  him  from  the  dead)  when  the  voice 
of  the  Almighty  bade  him  take  a  ram  caught 
by  its  horns  in  the  thicket  and  sacrifice  it  as  a 
substitute  in  his  stead.  He  raised  him  up  from 
the  altar  in  an  act  which  was  typical  of  res- 
urrection: the  son  then  disappears  from  view; 
but  Abraham  calls  his  servant  Eliezer  and  bids 
him  go  forth  to  find  a  wife  for  his  son.  He  finds 
her  at  a  well  drawing  water.  He  enters  with  her 
the  house  of  her  brother  Laban,  the  fleshly  man, 
takes  out  the  pack  of  precious  things  sent  from 
the  father  in  the  name  of  the  son  and  shows  them 
to  her;  and  as  she  consents  to  be  the  bride,  leads 
her  forth  to  meet  him,  talking  to  her  of  him  by 
the  way;  'v\'hen,  suddenly,  unheralded  the  son 
appears,  comes  forth  to  meet  her  and  take  her 
to  himself. 

Two  thousand  years  after,  on  this  very  spot, 
the  Son  of  God  offered  Himself  as  a  sacrifice 


14  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

for  sin,  a  substitute  for  the  sinner,  then  on  the 
third  day  rose  from  the  dead;  for  two  thousand 
years  He  has  like  Isaac  disappeared  from  view; 
but  the  Holy  Spirit  like  Eliezer  has  come  forth 
from  the  Father  in  the  name  of  the  Son  to  seek 
for  Him  a  bride  and  to  call  her  by  His  name, — 
the  Church,  THE  CHRIST.  He  is  finding  her 
at  the  Gospel  well,  the  well  of  glad  tidings  and 
of  living  water.  One  by  one  as  we  believe  we 
become  members  of  that  bride,  because  we  be- 
come members  of  His  spiritual  body;  the  Spirit 
enters  into  our  fleshly  lives,  as  Eliezer  into  the 
house  of  Laban,  and  unfolds  the  Bible  as  the 
pack  of  precious  things  sent  from  the  Father  in 
the  name  of  the  Son.  He  is  leading  us  along  the 
way  of  time  and  circumstance,  talking  to  us  of 
the  unseen  and  absent  Bridegroom  when,  sud- 
denly, He  will  come  into  the  air  and  take  the 
Church  to  Himself,  and  thus  this  story  of  Eliezer 
seeking  a  bride,  and  the  coming  forth  of  Isaac 
to  meet  Rebekah,  is  the  full  and  analogic,  but 
prophetic  picture  of  the  Second  Coming  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  the  Head  of  the 
Spiritual  Body,  and  His  Bride,  the  Church. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1 5 

Jacob  wearied  with  his  flight  from  home  lies 
down  at  eventide  there  in  the  plain  of  Luz  and 
takes  for  his  pillow  a  cold  and  barren  stone, 
while  the  quiet  stars  watch  him  from  afar.  As  he 
sleeps  he  dreams ;  and  then  a  vision  of  the  night  is 
on  him.  He  sees  a  ladder  of  gold  leaning  against 
the  shining  sky.  At  the  top  of  it  he  beholds  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel,  none  other  than  the  Christ 
of  God  who  is  to  be.  He  sees  Him  coming  with 
ten  thousands  of  the  heavenly  host.  He  listens 
while  the  Lord  declares  to  him  that  all  the  land 
on  which  he  lies  shall  be  his  and  his  posterity's 
after  him;  and  that  of  his  seed  shall  come  a  na- 
tion—and this  nation  shall  have  temporal  sover- 
eignty in  the  end  of  days ;  he  wakes  to  learn,  and 
we  learn  with  him,  that  the  nation  of  Israel 
shall  find  its  permanent  and  abiding  place  in  the 
land  of  Palestine,  be  the  head  and  no  longer  the 
tail  of  nations,  and  find  its  consummation  in 
the  hour-  when  the  Son  of  God  shall  come  as 
the  covenant  seed  of  Abraham,  the  seed  of  Is- 
rael, the  seed  of  Jacob  and  heir  of  David's 
throne;  and  this,  when  He  comes  a  SECOND 
time. 


1 6  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Joseph  is  the  son  of  his  father's  old  age,  goes 
out  to  visit  his  brethren,  is  rejected  by  them,  is 
cast  into  the  pit  of  death,  taken  out  alive  and  sent 
into  the  far  country,  into  Egypt,  is  there  exalted 
to  co-rulership  on  the  throne,  takes  a  wife  from 
among  the  Gentiles  and  at  a  determined  hour, 
with  her,  goes  forth  in  his  chariot  of  glory  that 
he  may  bring  his  father's  house  and  his  brethren 
after  the  flesh  in  to  Goshen  the  promised  land  of 
Egypt. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  eternity, 
the  Son  of  the  infinite  Father.  He  was  sent  to 
His  brethren  in  the  flesh,  they  rejected  Him, 
cast  Him  into  the  pit  and  place  of  death.  God 
took  Him  out  alive.  He  has  taken  Him  into  that 
far  country,  into  the  highest  heaven  itself,  He 
has  exalted  Him  to  the  throne  as  a  co-ruler  with 
Himself,  He  is  now,  as  also  typified  in  the  story 
of  Isaac,  getting  a  bride  from  among  the  Gen- 
tiles. At  a  predetermined  moment  He  will  come 
forth  with  His  chariot  with  ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousands  of  His  angels  that  He  may  bring 
His  father's  house,  His  brethren  after  the  flesh, 
the  Jews,  into  the  promised  land  of  earth,  into 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  I? 

Palestine;  and  thus  the  story  of  Joseph  is  the 
typical  story  of  the  Lord,  and  finds  its  prophetic 
climax  in  His  Coming  a  SECOND  time. 

David  goes  up  the  slopes  of  Olivet,  bare- 
headed, bent  back,  bare-footed,  his  face  washed 
in  tears,  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief,  a  rejected  king.  Later  on,  he  comes  back 
with  a  mighty  host,  the  victor's  shout,  crosses 
Jordan,  enters  Jerusalem,  and  sits  a  king  in 
lordly  fashion  on  Zion's  heights.  Surely,  we 
know  our  Lord  was  a  man  of  sorrows  and  ac- 
quainted with  grief.  Behold  Him  on  the  slopes 
of  Olivet,  weeping  over  the  city  of  His  love  as 
His  gaze  sweeps  down  the  centuries  of  the  com- 
ing woe,  by  that  city  is  repudiated,  goes  forth  a 
rejected  King,  goes  forth  to  death  and  the  grave. 
But,  behold.  He  is  to  come  back  with  the  victor 
shout  and  song,  cross  Jordan  from  the  east  as 
He  comes  from  Idumaea  up,  enter  Jerusalem  and 
enthrone  Himself  on  Zion's  heights  as  Lord  and 
King;  and  this  when  He  comes  a  SECOND 
time. 

And  this  Second  Coming  of  Christ  Inspires 
David  to  draw  his  fingers  across  his  golden  harp 


1 8  THE  SFXOXD  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Strings,  evolve  the  loftiest  notes  and  sing  in  his 
most  daring  and  exalted  symbols.  He  speaks  of 
that  hour  when  the  heavens  shall  bow  down  to 
the  earth ;  when  the  waves  of  the  sea  shall  lift 
their  tidal  voices  and  break  with  triumphant  tu- 
mult on  all  the  shores;  when  the  hills  shall  melt 
and  flow  down  as  the  sea;  when  all  the  trees  of 
the  wood  as  transfigured  witnesses  shall  clap 
their  hands ;  when  all  voices  in  earth,  in  hell  and 
heaven  shall  cry  out  till  the  whole  universe  is 
full  of  the  refrain,  "He  cometh.  He  cometh — He 
Cometh  to  rule  the  earth  in  righteousness  and 
truth:  He  is  coming  a  jfco«J  time." 

The  prophets  choose  their  choicest  words  and 
find  their  noblest  phrase  when  they  seek  to  por- 
tray the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord. 

Isaiah  sees  Zion  exalted  above  all  the  hills  and 
the  Lord's  house  crowning  all  the  lifted  heigths. 
He  hears  the  war  sword's  final  clangor  as  into 
plough  shares  beaten,  and  beholds  the  spears  as 
pruning  hooks  amid  the  gathered  fruitage  of  the 
growing  vines.  The  law  goes  forth  from  Zion 
and  the  Word  of  God  prevails;  and  this  they 
teach,  when  the  Lord  comes,  not  the  first,  but 
*'the  SECOND  TLME." 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  19 

Micah  announces  when  the  Lord  comes  the 
second  time  war  shall  cease  and  men  shall  learn 
its  ways  no  more,  but  each  beneath  his  own  vine 
and  fig  tree  shall  sit,  none  daring  to  molest  nor 
make  afraid. 

Joel  declares  the  voice  of  the  Lord  shall  be 
heard  from  Jerusalem.  He  will  overthrow  the 
enemies  of  Israel  and  Zion  shall  be  His  dwelling 
place  forever. 

Zechariah  testifies  the  Lord  is  coming,  coming 
with  all  His  saints:  that  His  feet  in  that  day- 
shall  stand  upon  the  mount  of  Olives  which  is  on 
the  east  before  Jerusalem,  it  shall  cleave  in  twain 
and  roll  forth  as  a  platform  for  His  feet,  and  the 
feet  of  His  saints;  and  because  this  has  never 
taken  place,  it  is  not  at  His  First,  but  at  His 
SECOND  coming. 

When  you  open  the  last  chapter  of  Malachi, 
the  Lord  is  seen,  not  at  His  First  Advent,  but  at 
His  Seconjd,  arising  as  a  sun  of  righteousness 
with  healing  in  His  wings,  ready  to  cast  His 
benediction  and  His  bounty  on  the  earth  before 
He  smites  it  with  a  curse. 

Then  we  close  the  Old  Testament  with  its  mul- 


20  THE  SECOND  CC«V1ING  OF  CHRIST 

tiplied  and  precise  announcements  of  the  Second 
Coming  of  our  Lord,  and  lean  across  four  cen- 
turies of  prophetic  silence.  As  we  listen  we  hear 
the  sound  of  angel  song;  we  hear  the  Gloria  in 
Excelsis;  beneath  the  star  lit  sky  a  babe  is  born, 
and  we  rejoice  at  the  First  Advent  of  the  Christ; 
but  scarcely  have  we  done  listening  to  this  rapt 
announcement  of  the  First  Advent  when  we  hear 
the  Christ  Himself  grown  to  manhood  and  to 
ministry  proclaiming  not  His  First  Coming  but 
His  SECOND. 

He  speaks  of  it  in  parable,  in  open  discourse 
and  story. 

He  tells  His  disciples  that  a  householder 
called  his  servants  about  him,  gave  to  each  one  of 
them  a  work  to  do,  bade  the  porter  watch  and 
said,  "I  am  going  into  a  far  country,  but  I  am 
coming  back  at  an  hour  when  ye  think  not.  It 
may  be  at  evening  when  the  sun  is  low,  it  may  be 
at  midnight,  in  the  deepest  darkness  and  when 
the  stars  arise.  It  may  be  in  the  cock  crowing 
when  the  night  begins  to  advance,  or  it  may  be 
in  the  gray  of  morning  when  the  dawn  begins 
to  turn  through  rose  and  purple  to  the  gold  of 
day." 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  2 1 

And  the  Lord  said  to  them,  "You  are  the  house 
and  you  are  the  servants,  you  have  each  of  you 
your  work,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  keep  the 
door.  I  am  going  yonder  into  the  land  of  'far 
distance,'  into  heaven  above;  but  I  am  coming 
back,  I  am  coming  a  second  time  and  at  an  hour 
when  ye  think  not.  It  may  be  in  the  evening  as 
the  age  draws  to  its  close.  It  may  be  in  the  mid- 
night when  the  spiritual  darkness  is  deep.  It 
may  be  at  the  cock  crowing  when  the  sound  of 
trumpets  begins  to  be  heard.  It  may  be  in  the 
blaze  of  the  morning,  in  the  splendor  of  that  new 
day  that  shall  dawn  as  the  Day  of  God.  What  I 
say  unto  one  I  say  unto  all — Watch!  Watch!  be 
ready!  for  I  am  coming  a  SECOND  time." 

He  compares  His  return  to  that  of  a  bride- 
groom who  comes  at  midnight  to  meet  the  wait- 
ing bride's  maids  and  with  then  enter  into  the 
marriage  chamber,  to  the  marriage  supper  and 
the  joy. 

He  says  He  is  coming  as  King  of  glory  to  sit 
upon  the  throne  of  His  glory,  as  the  throne  of  the 
Lord,  in  Jerusalem,  to  enter  into  judgment  of  the 
nations,   and   to  judge   them   according  to   the 


22  THE  SECOND  COMIXG  OF  CHRIST 

fashion  in  which  they  have  treated  His  brother 
in  the  flesh,  the  Jew. 

Then  in  that  last  discourse  upon  Olivet  when 
His  disciples  come  and  ask  Him  what  shall 
be  the  sign  of  His  coming,  He  tells  them  of  mul- 
tiplied war,  of  famine  and  pestilence  walking  to- 
gether cheek  by  jowl,  of  shattering  earthquake, 
of  false  apostles,  of  deceitful  workers,  of  distress 
of  nations,  of  men's  hearts  failing  them  for  fear; 
and  then  declares  He  will  come  as  the  lightning 
shines  from  the  east  to  the  west  and  with  all  His 
holy  angels. 

But  on  that  night  of  nights,  at  the  last  supper, 
when  every  heart  was  mute  with  sadness;  when 
they  were  quivering  at  the  very  thought  that  He 
who  had  led  them  so  long  among  the  hills  and 
vales  of  earth  was  going  away,  He  bids  them 
look  up  at  the  crystalline  arch  of  the  nightly 
stars,  and  speaks  to  them  words  that  should  be 
let  with  diamond  pointed  pen  into  the  face  of  an 
eternal  rock,  such  words  as  these: 

''Let  not  your  hearts  be  troubled:  ye  believe 
in  God,  believe  also  in  me.  In  my  Father's 
house  are  manv  mansions:    if  it  nere  not  so,  I 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  23 

would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you.  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you, 
/  will  come  again:  and  receive  you  unto  myself : 
that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also." 

And  then,  in  that  tragic  hour,  in  that  gaiish 
morning  light  when  He  stood  before  His  judges, 
mocked,  spit  upon,  bound,  a  rope  about  His  neck 
as  when  a  lamb  is  to  slaughter  led;  standing  on 
the  threshold  of  His  shameful  death,  He  said  to 
them  that  thereafter  they  should  see  Him  sitting 
on  the  right  hand  of  power  and  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven. 

Then  they  crucified  Him.  They  put  Him  to 
death.  They  laid  Him  in  the  grave  and  rolled 
the  stone  to  the  door  of  His  tomb.  His  sun 
seemed  to  go  down  at  mid-noon;  but  the  third 
day  He  rose,  forty  days  later  He  ascended  from 
the  midst  of  His  disciples,  and  as  they  saw  Him 
swallowed  up  and  lost  to  gaze  in  the  deeps  of  the 
upper  infinite;  even  while  they  watched  Him 
through  their  wonder  and  their  tears,  two  men  in 
white  from  the  other  country  stood  by  their  side 
and  said  unto  them: 

"Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  ye  gazing  up 


24  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

into  heaven?  This  same  Jesus  which  is  taken  up 
from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so  conic  in  like  man- 
ner as  ye  have  seen  Him  go  into  heaven." 

After  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  Apostle  Peter 
with  John  went  up  into  the  temple  to  pray. 
They  saw  a  lame  man  there.  Peter  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  bade  him  rise  up  and  walk. 
He  did  so  leaping  and  running  into  the  temple. 
The  people  followed  him  and  a  great  crowd 
gathered  about  the  Apostles,  asking  them  how 
it  was  done.  Peter  answered  he  had  not  healed 
the  man  with  his  own  power  but  by  the  name 
and,  therefore,  by  the  power  of  Jesus.  Then 
he  told  them  that  He  whom  they  had  crucified 
and  put  to  death  was  the  Prince  of  life,  the  Au- 
thor of  life — and  if  they  should  repent  and  turn 
unto  the  Lord,  the  Father  w^ould  send  Him 
back.  Having  said  this  he  quoted  all  the 
prophets  from  Samuel  and  assured  them  these 
prophets  with  one  accord  foretold  that  this  cruci- 
fied but  now  risen  Lord  would  come  a  SEC- 
OND time. 

Yonder  in  Jerusalem  a  great  council,  the  first 
council  of  all  the  Churches,  was  gathered  to  de- 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  25 

liberate  and  determine  upon  spiritual  things. 
James  the  Apostle  rose  up  and  said  it  was  nec- 
essary Christians  should  understand  this  age: 
in  this  age  God  was  not  seeking  to  convert  the 
world,  but  was  calling  out  from  among  the  Gen- 
tiles a  people  for  His  name,  a  people  to  faith  in 
the  name  of  His  Son;  when  this  taking  out  was 
complete,  when  the  Church  number  was  filled 
up,  the  Lord  would  come  back,  would  build  up 
the  nation  of  Israel;  and  in  support  of  his  testi- 
mony turned  to  the  Old  Testament,  quoting  from 
the  prophet  Amos,  and  thus  from  Amos  pro- 
claimed that  the  Lord  is  coming  a  SECOND 
time. 

Paul  writes  to  the  Church  at  Rome  that  the 
whole  creation  is  groaning  and  travailing  in  pain 
together  until  now.  If  you  will  put  your  ear  to 
the  bosom  of  the  earth,  the  mother  of  us  all,  you 
will  hear  the  moaning,  the  heaving  sigh,  the  plash 
of  tears,  the  tread  of  tragedy,  the  footstep  and 
the  voice  of  suffering;  everywhere  anguish  and 
sorrow,  heartache,  mystery,  confusion  and  in- 
creasing lamentation ;  but,  lo,  the  whole  creation 
is  on  the  tiptoe  of  expectation,  waiting  for  the 


26  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God,  waiting  for  the 
Coming  of  the  Son  of  God  and  His  glory  host; 
then  shall  creation  break  her  bands  of  corruption, 
be  delivered  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  Son 
of  God  and  flash  on  amid  the  rythmic  splendors 
of  the  shining  spheres.  Thus  shall  this  battle 
stained  and  sin  scarred  earth  be  delivered  at  the 
SECOND  COMING  of  our  Lord. 

He  tells  the  Corinthian  Church  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  first  epistle  to  see  to  it  that  they 
come  behind  in  no  gift,  waiting  for  the  Coming 
of  the  Lord.  In  the  fifteenth  chapter,  in  which 
every  verse  is  like  a  string  of  pearls,  he  says  the 
Lord  is  coming  to  waken  the  dust  of  those  who 
sleep  in  His  name.  The  trumpet  shall  sound,  the 
dead  shall  be  raised  and  the  living  changed;  and 
this  resurrection  and  transfiguration,  it  is  af- 
firmed, will  take  place  among  those  who  are 
"Christ's  at  His  Coming." 

He  tells  the  Philippian  Church  that  we  who 
believe  are  citizens  of  a  country  which  is  in 
heaven ;  from  whence  also  we  look  for  a  Saviour, 
even  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  coming  to 
change  these  bodies  of  our  limitation.     (And  lo| 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  27 

we  are  limited,  indeed).  Here  is  a  man  with  a 
will  like  iron  and  a  body  too  weak  to  sustain  it; 
a  mind  full  of  leaping  desires  and  plans  and  high 
suggestions,  and  a  body  that  cabins,  cribs  and 
confines  them,  a  body  full  of  tempermental  and 
physical  hindrances;  but  Paul  says,  Our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  is  coming  from  heaven  a  second 
time  and  by  His  power,  the  same  power  by 
which  He  rose  from  the  dead  and  upholds  the 
universe,  will  change  these  bodies  of  our  daily 
limitations  and  fashion  them  like  unto  the  body 
of  His  glory. 

He  assures  the  Colossians  when  Christ  died  on 
yonder  cross  we  who  believe,  died  with  Him, 
and  were  put  to  death  judicially  in  Him,  as  our 
representative  and  substitute.  When  He  rose 
from  the  dead  and  ascended  to  heaven,  we  rose 
and  ascended  in  Him  representatively.  He  is 
there  as  our  life,  our  spiritual  and  eternal  life. 
Our  life  is  therefore  hid  in  Him,  and  as  He  is 
hid  in  God,  we  are  doubly  hidden  and  secured 
in  the  deity  of  the  Father  and  the  Son;  but 
Christ  is  coming  forth:  He  is  coming  forth  a 
second  time  and  in  glory,    and  therefore  says 


2§  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRISt 

Paul  when  He  who  is  our  life  shall  appear  then 
shall  ye  also  appear  with  Him  in  glory. 

Paul's  first  epistle  to  the  Churches  was  written 
to  the  Christians  at  Thessalonica.  In  his  letter 
he  commends  them  because  they  had  turned  to 
God  from  idols  to  serve  the  living  and  the  true 
God  and  to  wait  for  His  Son  from  heaven.  He 
finds  them  sorrowing  over  their  dead  and  not  cer- 
tain as  to  what  relation  they  should  sustain  to 
the  Coming  of  the  Lord;  and  he  says  to  them 
they  are  not  to  sorrow  as  others  which  have  no 
hope;  but  just  so  surely  as  these  Christian  dead 
have  been  put  to  sleep  by  Jesus,  even  as  a  mother 
puts  her  babe  to  sleep,  so  surely  when  He  conies 
He  will  bring  them  with  Him;  and  Paul  says, 
I  am  saying  this  to  you  by  a  special  revelation 
from  the  Son  Himself,  that  when  the  Lord  de- 
scends from  heaven.  He  will  do  so  with  a  shout, 
the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the  trump  of  God, 
and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first,  then  these 
who  are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  to- 
gether with  them  in  clouds  to  meet  the  Lord  in 
the  air  and  so  shall  they  ever  be  with  the  Lord. 

He  says  the  Coming  will  be  like  a  thief  in  the 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  IQ 

night.  In  the  first  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  he 
makes  it  plain  tlie  Lord  is  coming  for  the 
Church ;  in  the  second  epistle  he  shows  that  after 
He  has  come  for  His  Church  He  will  come  witli 
her,  and  she  shall  be  associated  with  Him  in  that 
hour  of  hours  when  He  overthrows  the  man  of 
sin,  puts  an  end  to  the  hierarchy  of  the  Devil  and 
brings  in  the  reign  of  righteousness  and  peace. 

So  full  is  the  Apostle  of  this  theme  of  the 
Second  Coming  that  at  the  close  of  each  chapter 
in  both  epistles  he  speaks  of  and  describes  it. 

To  Timothy  the  young  preacher,  he  writes  and 
says:  "Timothy,  I  am  an  old  man  now.  1  am  n  t <aa. -4: 7- f 
Paul  the  aged;  but  Timothy,  I  have  fought  a 
good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have  kept 
the  faith:  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord  the 
righteous  judge  shall  give  me  at  that  day;  and 
not  to  me  only,  but  unto  all  them  also,  that  love 
His  appearing." 

A  crown,  a  crown  of  righteousness,  not  a  re- 
buke for  having  dealt  with  that  which  was  non- 
essential, but  a  crown  of  righteousness  to  all  who 
love  the  Second  Coming  of  the  Lord. 


3'-  THE  SECOxND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

He  writes  to  Titus  and  testifies  the  Second 
Coming  is  the  blessed  hope.  "Looking  for  that 
blessed  hope  and  the  glorious  appearing  of  our 
Great  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 

He  writes  to  Hebrew  Christians  and  talks 
to  them  about  Yarn  Kip  pur.  Yam  signifies 
"day,"  and  Kippur  comes  from  a  Hebrew  verb 
"to  cover."  Yom  Kippur  means  the  "day  of 
covering,"  Yom  Kippur  was  recently  celebrated 
all  over  die  world  wherever  there  was  a  colony 
or  company  of  Jews.  Yom  Kippur  wa^  that  day 
in  October  when  the  Jews  first,  in  the  Wilder- 
ness, assembled  about  the  Tabernacle  while 
Aaron  the  high  priest  slew  the  bullocks  and  took 
their  blood  within  the  vail,  sprinkling  it  upon 
the  mercy  seat.  He  did  the  same  thing  with  the 
blood  of  the  sacrificial  goat.  The  blood  made 
atonement,  reconciled  the  people  ceremonially 
to  God,  covered  over  their  sins  typically  in  His 
sight;  hence  it  was  called  the  day  of  covering. 
Then  the  high  priest  took  the  live  goat,  confessed 
upon  it  the  sins  of  the  people  and  handed  it  over 
to  a  chosen  man,  a  man  selected  for  the  occasion 
and  called  the  fit  man,  the  man  of  opportunity. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  31 

He  put  a  rope  around  its  head  and  led  it  away 
into  a  part  of  the  country  uninhabited,  out  of 
sight.  The  people  waited  for  him  to  return,  ex- 
pected him  to  come  back.  Presently,  they  saw 
him  coming,  but  without  the  scape  goat,  without 
the  sin  ofifering;  and  thus  for  another  year  the 
people  were  ceremonially  secured  from  judg- 
ment, and  guaranteed  the  care  and  fellowship  of 
God. 

Paul  tells  the  Hebrew  Christians,  and  in  tell- 
ing them  tells  us,  that  yonder  on  the  cross  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  died  as  the  great  sin  oflfering; 
that  when  with  a  loud  voice  He  cried  "It  is  fin- 
ished," He  was  announcing,  not  only  that  His 
covenant  promise  with  the  Father  was  kept,  but 
that  the  type,  the  figure  and  symbol  of  Yom  Kip- 
pur  was  fulfilled  in  Him;  as  it  is  written: 
"Once  in  the  end  of  the  age  hath  He  appeared  to 
put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself." 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  both  victim  and  high 
priest,  as  the  high  priest  He  arose,  ascended,  and 
with  His  own  blood  went  within  the  upper  veil 
and  there  full  atonement  made.  He  ascended 
there  also  as  the  chosen  man,  the  fit  man,  the 


32  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

man  of  opportunity.  From  that  hour  to  this  has 
been  Yom  Kippur,  Yom  Kippur  was  but  a 
shadow.  The  real  Yom  Kippur  is  to-day.  To- 
day we  are  living  in  the  age  and  dispensation  of 
Yom  Kippur  or  Atonement.  But  like  the  Chil- 
dren of  Israel  our  gaze  as  believers  is  turned  to- 
ward the  far  country,  the  country  unseen,  heaven 
itself;  and  we  are  waiting  for  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  to  come  the  Second  time  as  the  chosen 
man,  the  fit  man,  the  man  of  opportunity. 
Wherefore  says  Paul  to  the  Hebrews,  "Unto 
them  that  look  for  Him  shall  He  appear  the  sec- 
ond time  without  sin  (that  is  without  the  sin  of- 
fering) unto  salvation,"  unto  the  guaranteed  and 
eternal  salvation  of  all  who  claim  Him  as  sacri- 
fice, sin  offering,  scape  goat  and  substitute. 

Do  you  understand  this  text  now,  and  do  you 
catch  the  voluminous  accent  of  its  meaning? 
*'Unto  them  that  look  for  Him  shall  He  appear 
the  second  time  without  sin  unto  salvation." 

Peter  declares  we  should  love,  and  rejoice  in, 
the  appearing  of  Christ.  James  testifies  the 
"Coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh."  "The 
judge  standeth  at  the  door." 


THE  SiZCOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  33 

The  Apostle  John  says  the  world  did  not  know 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  and 
they  do  not  know  we  are  His  sons  now.  They  do 
not  know  what  we  are  to  be;  but  we  know  we 
shall  be  like  Him.  We  shall  see  Him  as  He  is — 
and  the  very  sight  of  Him  will  transfigure  us 
with  His  likeness  and  His  glory. 

And  this  hope,  the  hope  of  the  Second  Com- 
ing, he  says  is  a  purifying  hope,  it  is  not  a  mere 
empty  and  inefficient  vision,  but  a  hope  so  but- 
tressed on  reality  that  it  will  lead  those  who 
really  hold  it  to  separate  themselves  from  all  evil 
and  sin  and  to  walk  becomingly  in  the  name  of 
Him  for  whom  they  wait. 

John  is  not  satisfied  with  saying  all  this.  He 
affirms  there  are  those  who  do  not  hesitate  to 
deny  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  coming  a  second  a  ^o«n  -^'^^ 
time  in  the  flesh.  He  says  all  who  deny  this, 
all  who  for  a  moment  refuse  to  believe  He  is 
coming  a  second  time  in  the  flesh,  in  bodily 
fashion,  as  the  man  who  died,  are  antichrists, 
and  deceivers.  With  inspired  speech  he  says  if 
any  one  should  come  to  you  and  not  bring  the 
true  doctrine  of  God  and  Christ,  you  are  not  to 


34  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

receive  him  into  your  house,  nor  bid  him  God- 
speed; if  you  do,  you  are  a  partaker  of  his  evil 
deeds  and  God  will  hold  you  as  guilty  as  he. 

Then  we  take  up  the  little  epistle  of  Jude  and 
find  he  quotes  from  the  book  of  Enoch,  Enoch 
the  seventh  man  from  Adam.  We  find  this 
Enoch  walked  with  God  for  three  hundred  years 
amid  the  riot  and  the  revel  of  an  ungodly  world ; 
so  walked  above  its  iniquity  and  shame  in  felJow- 
ship  with  truth  and  righteousness  that  God  took 
him  home  without  dying;  and  this  Enoch,  in 
his  book  written  more  than  three  thousand  years 
before  the  first  advent,  testifies  not  about  the  first, 
but  the  SECOND  saying:  ''Behold  the  Lord 
Cometh  with  ten  thousands  of  His  Saints." 

This  brings  us  to  the  last  book  of  the  Bible,  the 
book  of  the  Revelation.  The  book  was  written 
under  peculiar  circumstances  and  specially  and 
specificially  inspired. 

When  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ascended  to 
heaven,  God  the  Father  gave  Him  a  full  revela- 
tion of  His  Second  Coming. 

Our  Lord  gave  that  revelation  to  an  angel  and 
bade  him  give  it  to  John,   the  John  who  had 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  35 

leaned  upon  His  breast  at  supper,  and  the  John 
who  wrote  the  fourth  Gospel,  the  Gospel  of 
Grace  and  Glory. 

John  was  in  the  island  of  Patmos,  a  persecuted 
and  Roman  prisoner  for  his  Master's  sake.  To 
hirn  the  Lord  appeared  in  glory  in  the  island 
prison  and  bade  him  write  the  Revelation  in  a 
book  and  send  it  to  the  Churches. 

The  subject  of  the  book,  the  whole  book,  is  the 
SECOND  COM/A/^G  of  the  Lord;  for,  this  very 
word  "Revelation,"  is  "Apocalypse"  and  signi- 
fies "Unveiling."  It  is  the  unveiling  and  reveal- 
ing of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  full  and  won- 
drous picture  of  His  Second  Coming;  wherefore 
in  the  very  first  chapter  and  in  that  portion  of  it 
which  is  the  introduction  to  the  whole  book,  he 
says,  "Behold  He  cometh  with  clouds;  and 
every  eye  shall  see  Him." 

Every  chapter  is  related  to  this  Second  Com- 
ing, weaving  about  it  the  movement  among  the 
nations,  the  gathering  for  the  conflict,  the  loosen- 
ing of  the  spirits  and  the  bonds  of  evil,  sickness 
and  disease  and  pestilence,  falling  out  of  the  very 
air;  unseen  and  demoniacal  powers  behind  visi- 


36  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

ble  wickedness,  hardening  judgments  which  only 
tend  to  inflame  the  Satanism  of  the  hour;  in- 
creased wickedness  and  monstrosity  responding  to 
every  judicial  whip  lash  and  probing;  and  then 
at  the  end  of  a  description  in  which  we  hear  the 
sound  of  trumpets,  and  the  rush  of  the  multitude, 
like  the  rushing  of  the  seas;  after  we  have  been 
given  a  picture  of  the  climacteric  moment  when 
the  Lord  shall  descend  and  crash  into  the  dust 
with  the  iron  flail  of  His  Sceptre  the  organized 
iniquity  that  has  opposed  Him,  we  hear  Him 
saying  in  a  speech  full  of  persistent  and  per- 
suasive pathos,  "Surely,  truly  indeed,  I  am  Com- 
ing. I  am  coming  quickly.  I  am  coming  a 
SECOND  time." 

And  thus  it  is  evident  this  doctrine  of  the  Sec- 
ond Coming  is  inwrought  with  every  fibre  of  the 
Bible  and  from  end  to  end  is  an  essential  and 
vital  part  of  it.  So  inwrought  is  it  with  all 
its  texture  and  testimony  that  if  I  should  take  out 
of  it  every  direct  statement  made  concerning  the 
Second  Coming,  all  correlative  propositions,  doc- 
trines, promises  and  exhortations,  together  with 
the  wide  sweeping  ultimate  concerning  it,  there 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  37 

would  be  nothing  left  of  the  Bible  but  shreds  and 
tatters.  Who  is  he  then  who  talks  about  the  Sec- 
ond Coming  of  Christ  being  non-essential  and 
unimportant? 

Unimportant! 

I  hope  by  the  grace  of  God  later  on  to  show  it 
to  be  so  important  that  it  is  bound  up  actually 
and  indissolubly  with  every  fundamental  doc- 
trine, every  practical  exhortation,  every  sublime 
promise  and  every  radiant  hope ;  and  that  unless 
you  know  this  doctrine  you  cannot  read  your 
Bible  intelligently,  you  have  no  key  to  open  its 
locks,  slip  back  its  bolts  and  fling  wide  the  doors 
to  the  ivory  galleries  of  the  King. 

Who  is  he  then  who  will  say  we  can  talk  too 
much  and  preach  too  much  about  it? 

But  not  only  does  the  doctrine  of  the  Second 
Coming  have  to  suffer  from  ignorance,  indiffer- 
ence and  prejudice,  but  from  lawless  perversion 
and  false  te'aching. 

There  are  those  who  teach  the  Second  Com- 
ing of  the  Lord  means  the  coming  of  the  Spirit; 
but  the  Lord's  own  statement  about  the  coming 
of  the  Spirit  ought  to  be  all  sufficient  answer. 


38  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

He  said,  "If  I  go  not  away  the  Comforter  (the 
Holy  Spirit)  will  not  come  unto  you,  but  if  I 
depart  I  will  send  Him  unto  you."  "If  I  go 
the  Spirit  will  come,"  and  therefore  the  Com- 
ing of  the  Spirit  does  not  mean  the  Coming 
of  the  Lord,  but  going  of  the  Lord.  Get  it  and 
hold  it  fast.  The  Coming  of  the  Spirit  is  the 
Going  of  the  Lord;  and  the  presence  of  the 
Spirit  means  the  bodily  absence  of  the  Lord; 
therefore  the  Coming  of  the  Spirit  is  not  the 
Coming  of  the  Lord. 

It  is  said  the  Lord  came  at  the  siege  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  and  there  are  those  who  make  the  twenty- 
fourth  chapter  of  Matthew  and  the  tribulation 
therein  described  as  the  base  of  such  teaching; 
for  the  sake  of  argument  admitting  the  suffer- 
ing and  anguish  of  the  siege  to  have  been  the 
great  tribulation  (which  it  was  not),  it  is  written, 
"Immediately  after  the  tribulation  of  those  days 
.  .  .  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man  in 
heaven  .  .  .  and  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man 
coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  with  power  and 
great  glory." 
'     I  suppose  you  have  read  history,  and  you  know 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  39 

after  Jerusalem  had  been  taken  and  Titus  had 
run  his  plough  share  over  the  ruins,  the  sign  of 
the  Son  of  Man  did  not  appear  in  the  heaven; 
neither  did  the  Son  of  God  Himself  appear  with 
His  cohorts  of  Holy  Angels  and  all  the  earth 
bending,  some  in  adoration  and  others  in  fear  be- 
fore Him. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  and  overwhelmingly 
so,  the  siege  and  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was 
not  the  Coming  of  Christ. 

There  are  those  who  teach  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  comes  each  time  a  Christian  dies;  and  I 
have  no  doubt  you  have  heard  funeral  sermons 
or  addresses  delivered  from  the  text  "In  such  an 
hour  as  ye  think  not,  the  Son  of  Man  cometh" 
and  the  application  of  it  made  to  the  hour  of 
death.  But  the  Scriptures  make  it  demonstrably 
clear  and  plain  wlien  a  Christian  dies  the  Lord 
does  not  come  to  the  Christian,  but  the  Chris- 
tian goes  to  4:he  Lord;  as  it  is  written  by  the 
Apostle,  "I  have  a  desire  to  depart  and  be  with 
Christ;"  and  again,  "Absent  from  the  body  and 
present  with  the  Lord."  But  yonder  in  the 
assembly  of  the  Jewish    Sanhedrin  the  whole 


4«  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

truth  is  demonstrated  and  proved.  Stephen  is 
before  them.  He  arraigns  them  for  their  unbe- 
lief and  charges  them  with  guilt  in  rejecting 
Jesus  as  their  Messiah.  By  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  he  looks  into  the  opened  heavens 
and  sees  Jesus  standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God 
and  cries  out  and  says,  "I  see  the  heavens  opened 
and  the  Son  of  Man  standing  on  the  right  hand 
of  God."  They  rushed  upon  him  with  gnashing 
of  teeth,  cast  him  out  and  stoned  him  and  he 
kneeling  down  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  "Lord 
Jesus  receive  my  Spirit."  He  did  not  say,  "Jesus 
Come  to  me,"  but  "Jesus  Receive  me." 

And  this  great  action  on  the  part  of  the  Lord, 
and  this  relation  of  the  believer  to  Him,  takes 
place  each  time  a  Christian  dies.  The  Christian 
at  death  goes  to  be  with  the  Lord,  and  as  each 
redeemed  spirit  departs  and  ascends  to  Him,  He 
rises  up  to  receive  and  welcome  that  spirit  to  its 
new  abode. 

The  death  of  the  Christian  then  is  7iot  the 
Coming  of  Christ,  but  the  going  of  the  Chris- 
tian to  Christ. 

There  are  those  who  teach  our  Lord's  Coming 
takes  place  in  providential  dealings  and  events. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  4^ 

He  comes  each  time  a  cyclone  lays  waste  a  city 
or  a  land ;  each  time  a  tidal  wave  lifts  itself  upon 
the  shore,  invading  homes,  destroying  industries 
and  swallowing  up  the  lives  both  of  evil  and  of 
good;  each  time  a  bridge  breaks  down,  a  ship 
sinks,  a  train  runs  ofif  the  track,  the  shiver  of  an 
earthquake  or  the  pestilence  that  offers  its  holo- 
caust. Think  of  the  grotesque  conception  of  any 
school  of  theological  interpretation  which  en- 
deavors to  pass  off  a  pestilence,  a  fever,  or  the 
shadow  of  death,  as  the  Coming  of  Him  who  is 
life  and  health  itself,  the  victor  over  death  and 
the  grave;  but  there  is  a  threefold  answer  to  all 
this  fumbling  and  folly  of  excuseless  and  irre- 
sponsible interpretations. 

First  of  all  it  is  written,  "The  Lord  Himself 
shall  descend  from  heaven."  The  Lord  Him- 
self, not  winds,  nor  clouds,  nor  storm  and  dark- 
ness, not  fever  nor  pain  nor  disease  nor  imper- 
sonal things,  but — The  Lord  Himself. 

Second.  When  the  Lord  comes  in  His  final 
glory  every  eye  shall  see  Him. 

Third.  And  this  is  the  cumulative,  climac- 
teric, and  irresistible  demonstration  and  proof, 


42  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

this  scheme  of  providential  events  is  not  only  not 
true,  but  scarcely  worth  the  while  to  answer; 
for,  if  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  when  the  Holy 
Ghost  came,  at  the  siege  and  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, each  time  a  Christian  dies,  at  every  mani- 
festation of  providence,  in  all  cataclysmic  and 
catastrophic  events  and  circumstances,  then  He 
has  not  come  twice  nor  thrice  nor  ten,  nor  a  hun- 
dred, nor  a  thousand  times,  since  He  went  away, 
but  millions  of  times;  and  this  would  reduce  the 
whole  proposition  of  the  Coming  again  to  monu- 
mental nonsense,  childish  perversion  and  a  farci- 
cal exegesis  worthy  only  to  the  crowned  with 
cap  and  bells;  but  the  text  from  which  I  am 
preaching,  thundrously  and  irresistibly  answers 
all  this  folly;  as  it  is  written,  "Unto  them  that 
look  for  Him  shall  He  appear  the  Second  time." 
Not  three  times  or  four  times  and  all  the  rest  of 
it,  but  a  6'ECOiVi:)  time. 

From  all  this  then  which  so  far  has  been  said, 
it  ought  to  be  evident,  altogether  self  evident, 
that  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  a 
personal,  definite  and  SECOND  COMING. 

And  because  this  Second  Coming  is  so  bound 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  43 

up  and  interwoven  with  every  filament  and  fibre 
in  the  fabric  of  the  Book,  and  has  employed  all 
the  wealth  of  human  speech,  all  figure,  symbol 
and  type,  all  the  powers  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  to 
set  forth,  portray  and  intimately  illustrate;  be- 
cause the  Book  opens  with  the  announcement  of 
it,  and  ends  with  the  voice  of  the  Lord  in  special  ; 
accents  of  gentleness  and  tenderness,  .graciously 
and  yet  authoritatively  assuring  it,  it  is  not  only 
of  supreme  importance  as  so  manifestly  pro- 
claimed, but  of  immense  and  insistent  necessity. 

It  is  necessary,  in  order  that  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  may  demonstrate  the  validity  of  His  per- 
sonal and  essential  claims. 

He  claimed  to  be  Son  of  God  and  God  the 
Son,  the  heir  of  the  world  and  the  disposer  of  the 
destinies  of  men.  He  made  heaven  and  hell  for 
a  human  soul  depend  upon  the  relation  of  that 
soul  to  Himself,  and  so  claimed  the  right  and 
prerogative 'as  infinite  God  that  were  He  not 
such.  He  was  the  most  arrant  and  wicked  de- 
ceiver who  ever  sought  to  blind  and  entrap  the 
sons  of  men:  as  such  the  Jews  denounced  Him, 
and  hailed  Him,  and  sent  Him  to  the  cross  of 
shame. 


44  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

But  let  Him  come  down  the  dome  of  yonder 
sky  with  His  eyes  as  a  flame  of  fire  and  His  voice 
as  the  sound  of  many  waters,  and  men  shall  call 
the  rocks  and  the  mountains  to  fall  upon  them 
and  will  own  that  He  is  God  and  Lord  and 
Judge  of  human  kind. 

It  is  necessary  He  should  come  to  make  good 
His  claims  as  the  King  of  Israel. 

He  carried  His  credentials  as  such  with  Him. 
He  could  point  to  Joseph  His  adopted  father,  a 
prince  of  the  house  of  David,  as  the  channel  of 
His  legal  claim  to  David's  throne.  He  could 
point  to  His  mother  as  a  princess  of  the  House 
of  David,  and  through  her  by  actual  descent 
through  Nathan  from  David  himself,  as  lineal 
heir  of  David's  throne,  as  David's  Lord  and  Is- 
rael's King.  He  carried  His  credentials  every 
day  in  the  miracles  He  wrought.  Miracles  which 
had  been  foretold,  stamped,  sealed  and  made 
so  clear  no  man  could  blunder  nor  mistake,  to- 
gether with  fulfillment  of  events  and  conditions 
so  marked  and  true,  that  at  every  step  they  pro- 
claimed Him  and  proved  Him  to  be  the  Sent  of 
God;    but  in  the  face  of  the  most  marvellous 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  ^5 

verification  ever  made,  either  by  God  or  man,  the 
judicially  blinded  and  guilty  nation  rejected 
Him,  nailed  Him  to  the  cross,  while  over  Him 
was  written  by  a  Roman  Governor's  divinely  di- 
rected hand,  "This  is  the  King  of  the  Jews/' 

But  let  Him  come  with  His  schekinal  clouds, 
His  encircling  host  of  angelic  guards,  with  song 
of  seraphim  and  might  of  cherubim,  with  the 
echoing  of  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousands  of 
celestial  harps,  and  all  the  music  of  a  choral  uni- 
verse; let  Him  stand  on  that  Olivet  from  whose 
slope  He  ascended;  let  Him  blaze  forth  in  the 
meridian  splendor  that  shall  cause  the  sun  to 
dwindle  as  a  shadow  beneath  His  feet,  and  the 
repentant  Jew,  always  moved  by  signs  and  won- 
ders, will  fall  down,  confess,  and  say  unto  Him, 
"Lo  thou  art  our  God,  we  have  waited  for  Thee." 

It  is  necessary  that  He  should  come  to  justify 
the  faith  of  the  long,  long,  waiting  ages. 

O,  how  men  have  believed  and  trusted  and 
watched  and  hoped  and  died,  as  they  called  on 
His  name.  He  must  come  to  justify  the  rack,  the 
stake,  the  torture.  If  the  God  of  heaven  do  not 
send  Him  back,  if  He  has  looked  on  at  all  this 


46  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

sacrifice  and  agony  and  faith  and  unhesitating 
death  for  Christ's  sake,  has  had  no  intention  to, 
and  never  will,  send  Him,  then  God  is,  Himself, 
unspeakably  guilty  of  allowing  the  sons  of  men 
to  be  ensnared,  entrapped  and  wholly  deceived 
in  the  false  statement  and  misrepresentation  of 
the  Word  He  Himself  has  inspired.  Nay!  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  cries  out  from  every  gibbet, 
and  from  every  place  of  heroic  devotion,  "Come 
Thou  Son  of  God,  Come  once  more." 

//  is  necessary  He  should  come  to  give  peace^ 
not  only  to  individual  hearts,  but  to  the  world  as 
a  system  of  government  among  men. 

Up  to  this  hour  human  government  has  been  a 
huge  and  costly  failure.  From  the  beginning  it 
has  been  a  series  of  unbroken  war,  battle,  blood, 
tyranny,  oppression,  anguish  and  woe.  At  the 
present  moment  some  twenty  of  the  nations  of  the 
earth  are  at  each  other's  throats,  trampling  one 
another  in  the  mud  and  red  mire  of  blood.  The 
banner  of  civilization  woven  through  centuries 
of  self  gratulation  has  been  torn  into  shreds  and 
the  rags  and  tatters  of  it  flung  out  upon  the  gusty 
winds  and  driving  storms  of  the  loosened  temp- 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  i-7 

est  of  man's  wild  beast  and  brutal  passions.    And 
there  is  no  betterment  promised  for  the  future. 

Whatever  nation  comes  forth  victorious  from 
the  war,  England,  Germany,  or  Russia,  there 
will  be  the  impulse  for  greater  conflict.  If  Eng- 
land win,  she  will  have  a  sentimental  score  to 
settle  with  America;  and  both  America  and 
England  will  face  each  other  with  intensity  of 
national  determination  on  the  issue  of  the  world's 
commerce  and  the  world's  industry.  If  Germany 
win,  she  too,  will  have  a  score  to  settle  with  this 
country,  and  heavy  answers  to  give  to  what  she 
will  count  as  comfort  to  her  foe;  and  that  little 
yellow  spot  of  self  exalted  heathenism  in  the 
East,  growing  and  throwing  out  its  octopus  like 
tentacles  over  the  Pacific's  waters  is  reaching  far 
beyond  its  island  home.  If  Russia  win,  England 
and  India  and  the  East  will  become  factors  in 
complications  whose  peril  no  man  can  measure. 
Everywhere  and  at  every  turn  the  multiplication 
of  complications  and  the  frenzy  and  insanity  of 
self-interest  under  the  leadership  and  culminat- 
ing ambition  of  the  Devil,  will  make  the  earth 
the  arena  for  the  wars  and  rumors  of  wars  of 


48  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

which  the  Son  of  God  foretold,  and  for  the  uni- 
versal impact  that  shall  gather  all  nations  to 
battle. 

On  all  the  horizon  no  angel  of  peace  is  seen, 
only  the  black  formless  things  of  discord,  of  con- 
fusion and  of  ever  resounding  conflict. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  that  He  should 
come  to  lay  His  hand  upon  earth's  fevered 
pulses,  to  evoke  order  out  of  chaos  and  bring  in 
that  government  of  righteousness  and  peace 
whose  wide  fulfillment  shall  be  earth's  most 
golden  hour. 

He  must  come  to  make  Salvation  complete. 

Salvation  is  not  complete,  Paul  in  yonder 
heaven  with  Christ  is  only  half  saved.  All  the 
saints  of  God  who  are  there  and  every  Christian 
who  dies  and  departs  to  be  with  Christ,  are  only 
half  saved. 

How  can  any  Christian  be  more  than  half 
saved  so  long  as  the  body  which  was  redeemed 
by  blood  and  sealed  by  the  indwelling  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  lies  mouldering  in  the  grave? 

That  other  half  is  still  under  the  DeviFs  grip. 

The  Devil  has  the  power  of  death;    on  all 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  49 

mortal  bodies  he  has  a  legal  mortgage  signed  and 
sealed.  The  grave  is  his  house,  the  bodies  are 
his  goods,  and  he  is  the  "strong  man  armed," 
armed  with  that  law  which  says,  "Death  has 
passed  upon  all  men,"  and  "It  is  appointed  unto 
men  once  to  die." 

The  Devil  holds  the  goods. 

The  saints  of  God  in  heaven,  though  they  be 
clothed  with  robes  of  white,  wrought  in  the 
looms  of  God,  are  at  best  but  manifested  ghosts, 
disembodied  souls,  who  wait  the  clothing  which 
their  bodies  alone  may  give. 

They  lack  their  full  salvation. 

Hear  what  the  Apostle  says: 

"Now  is  our  salvation  nearer  than  when  we; 
believed." 

How  can  Paul  say  that  when  he  above  all 
other  apostles  has  declared  all  who  believe, 
and  from  the  very  moment  when  they  believed, 
were  therr  and  are  now  securely  and  doubly 
saved  because  their  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in 
God?  How  can  our  salvation  be  nearer  when 
the  Son  of  God  Flimself  has  said,  "He  that  be- 
lieveth  on  Me  hath  everlasting  life,"  and  that 
none  can  pluck  them  out  of  His  Father's  hand? 


so  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

The  answer  is,  salvation  is  threefold,  for  us, 
in  us,  and  upon  us.  It  is  ours  in  the  death  of 
Christ  which  delivers  us  from  the  penalty  of 
sin;  ours  in  the  communicated  life  of  Christ  and 
indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  are  able 
to  deliver  us  from  the  power  of  sin;  and  ours, 
when  our  bodies  are  redeemed  from  the  clasp 
and  corruption  of  death,  and  made  immortal. 

Not  till  a  Christian  receives  his  body  from  the 
dust  or  is  changed  while  living  and  transfigured; 
not  till  he  is  clothed  upon  by  an  immortal  body, 
is  salvation  according  to  the  eternal  purpose  and 
promise  of  God  complete. 

And  the  resurrection  of  the  body  and  the 
transfiguration  of  the  saints  can  take  place  only 
when  the  Son  of  God,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  He 
who  is  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  shall  come 
the  SECOND  time. 

It  is  necessary  that  He  shall  come. 

It  is  necessary  that  He  shall  speak,  and  bid  the 
graves,  on  land  and  sea,  give  up  their  purchased 
dead. 

Thus  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  a 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  S  I 

second  time  is  not  only  a  supreme  necessity,  but 
the  hope  of  all  hopes. 

It  is  the  hope  of  the  world. 

The  hope  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth;  the 
Gentile  nations,  the  white,  the  black,  the  red,  the 
brown  and  yellow,  peoples  of  all  kindreds  and 
tongues.  It  is  their  only  hope  for  that  hour  when 
war  shall  cease,  and  be  learned  no  more;  when 
swords  shall  be  beaten  into  plough  shares  and 
spears  into  pruning  hooks. 

It  is  the  hope  of  the  lew. 

Not  till  He  come  will  the  Jew  find  his  abid- 
ing place  in  Palestine.  Not  till  He  come  will 
the  solemn  oath  and  covenant  and  promise  of 
God  to  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  be  fulfilled. 

And  not  till  the  Jew  is  in  his  place  in  Palestine 
can  the  world  be  at  peace;  not  till  the  Jew  is  at 
home  and  one  with  God  will  the  Gentile  be 
ruled  by  God. 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  the  hope  of  the 
Church. 

Not  till  the  Lord  comes,  girds  the  Church 
with  His  glory,  fills  her  with  His  fullness,  makes 
her  like  Himself,  can  she  occupy  the  throne  of 


5  2  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

power  and  associated  rulership  with  Himself, 
and  bring  the  world  into  the  fellowship  of  God 
and  truth. 

Yea  and  Amen!  the  Coming  of  the  Son  of 
God  a  SECOND  time  is  the  "Blessed  Hope"  of 
the  Church,  the  bloom,  the  beauty,  and  the  fru- 
ition of  all  hopes. 

Oh!  if  Fie  do  not  come,  it  is  the  withering 
and  the  blight  and  the  overthrow. 

All  Scripture  goes  down  pell  mell  into  the 
abyss  of  untruth  and  unreality,  or,  is  w^hirled 
away  like  fallen  leaves  of  a  dying  tree  and  scat- 
tered on  the  windy  blast.  And  the  cross  of 
Christ  looms  against  the  fire  smitten  and  lurid 
horizon,  a  crimson  failure,  an  instrument  of 
cruel  agony  whereon  a  man  failed  and  went 
down  to  the  yawning  grave  that  waited  for  Him. 

The  failure  of  a  Man! 

Nay!  the  failure,  the  bankruptcy  of  the  world; 
a  grave  into  which  all  hope  and  faith  fall  dead 
and  lie  hopeless  as  a  rotting  corpse. 

But  the  Word  of  God  cannot  fail.  It  is  settled 
in  the  heavens  forever  more.  Each  utterance  is 
filled  with  the  breath  of  God  and  the  speech  and 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRISt  S^ 

promise  are  of  His  very  tongue. 

He,  the  living  God  has  said  it — and  it  is  true 
— Christ  the  Lord,  His  Son,  is  coming  a  Second 
Time. 

He  is  coming  as  a  man. 

He  is  coming  with  the  marks  of  the  cross  upon 
Him. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  there  was  a  man  in  my  town 
who  used  to  move  me  with  admiration,  with 
childish  wonder  and,  almost  with  adoration.  He 
had  been  a  soldier  in  the  Mexican  War.  He  had 
been  wounded  at  Palo  Alto.  He  bore  the  scars 
of  that  far  away  conflict;  when  I  looked  at  those 
wounds  they  spoke  to  me  of  a  heroism,  a  living 
loyalty,  a  life's  outpaid  tribute  to  the  flag,  that 
stirred  my  youthful  pulses.  But  great  and  mov- 
ing as  were  the  wounds  to  me  then,  they  were  as 
nothing  to  what  filled  my  vision  in  later  days. 
It  was  in  the  hour  of  the  great  war  between  the 
North  and  the  South,  when  the  problem  of  the 
life  or  death  of  our  nation  was  being  solved  on 
the  battlefield.  I  lived  through  that  struggle  and 
in  some  small  degree  was  a  part  of  it.  One  day 
when  the  sound  of  cannon  came  on  the  wind  I 


54  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

was  halted  with  others  on  the  side  of  the  road 
that  a  convoy  of  the  wounded  might  pass.  They 
were  loaded  into  great  carts  and  wagons  im- 
pressed from  neighboring  farms.  And  these 
wounded !  they  were  young  men,  the  flower  and 
freshness  of  the  land ;  and  when  I  saw  the  band- 
aged heads  and  arms  still  reddened  with  their 
blood  my  heart  melted  within  me,  the  tears 
leaped  to  my  eyes.  I  saw  in  these  men  the  radi- 
ance of  that  self  sacrifice,  that  high  and  lofty  con- 
cept which  counts  a  flag  and  all  it  banners  forth 
to  be  worth  more  than  any  single  life;  and  these 
wounds  and  blood  stains  were  to  me  as  the  stig- 
mata of  unfaltering  faith  and  abiding  glory,  the 
decorations  and  brevet  of  honor,  of  high  attain- 
ment and  of  splendor,  nor  rank,  nor  pomp,  nor 
wealth,  nor  crown  of  prince  could  give. 

But  what  were  these  stigmata,  these  seals  of 
honor  and  devotion  on  the  part  of  those  who  had 
breasted  death  that  a  nation  might  be  saved,  what 
were  these  compared  to  the  stigmata  of  Him  who 
died  for  you  and  me  good  friend,  that  we  might 
live  and  be  with  Him  in  after  days  the  sons  of 
God  forever? 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  55 

He  is  coming  back  with  the  marks  of  the  nails 
and  the  spear  wound  He  received  for  you  and 
me. 

And  I  shall  see  Him,  see  Him  by  the  right  of 
the  purchase  price  paid  in  the  blood  of  those 
very  wounds.  I  shall  take  His  hand ;  how  can  I 
endure  the  wonder,  the  glory,  and  the  anguish 
even  of  the  joy  and  reality  of  it?  I  shall  put  my 
fingers  into  the  marks  of  the  nails  in  His  right 
hand.  I  shall  do  it  as  Thomas  did,  and  yet  not 
as  Thomas  did.  I  shall  not  do  it  to  prove  Him, 
to  verify  Him,  but  to  thank  Him;  and  I  shall 
say,  "It  was  for  me."  I  shall  put  my  finger  into 
the  wound  of  His  left  hand,  and  I  shall  say,  *'It 
was  for  me."  I  shall  put  my  hand  into  His  side 
where  the  spear  point  was  sheathed  in  His 
breast,  and  where  water  and  blood  came  forth 
from  His  broken  heart,  and  I  shall  say,  "It  was 
for  me;"  and  I  shall  fall  down  and  kiss  the  nail 
marks  in  Hrs  feet  and  every  full  running  tear  of 
joy  and  praise  shall  say,  "These  were  for  me." 

Yes,  He  is  coming  back  with  the  stigmata  of 
the  cross. 

He  is  coming  back — not  a  phantom. 


56  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

He  is  coming  back  a  man,  the  man  whom 
death  could  not  kill;  the  man  the  grave  could 
not  keep;  the  man  whom  centuries  could  not 
wither  and  whom  custom  cannot  stale;  the  man 
who  is  the  Prince  and  the  Giver  of  Life  to  men. 

He  is  coming  back  the  Same  Jesus. 

In  spite  of  all  His  glory  and  splendor  and  in- 
finite crowning,  He  is  coming  back  the  same 
Jesus  who  sat  by  the  well  side  in  Samaria, — 
taught  by  the  blue  shores  of  Galilee,  climbed 
the  hills  of  Judea,  and  turned  to  music  the  dis- 
cord in  human  hearts  by  the  words  He  spake 
such  as  man  never  spake  before,  the  words  of  ten- 
der compassion,  infinite  love  and  measureless 
grace. 

He  is  coming  as  Bridegroom  of  the  Church, 
as  King  of  Israel,  as  David's  Son,  as  King  of 
kings,  as  the  Restorer  of  the  Earth,  as  its  Recre- 
ator,  as  its  Prince,  its  manifested  and  Eternal 
God.  He  will  come  first  for  the  Church  that  she 
may  share  with  Him  the  rapt  beginning  of  His 
triumphant  joys  when  He  shall  take  to  Himself 
His  great  power  to  reign  and  rule.  Then  with 
her  He  will  come  forth  to  begin  the  long  and 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  57 

wondrous  unfolding  deeds  that  shall  lift  the 
earth  once  more  into  the  orbit  from  whence  it 
fell,  into  the  full  music  of  the  spheres,  to  become 
no  longer  the  footstool,  but  the  throne  of  God 
and  the  center  on  which  shall  fall  the  gaze  of  a 
fascinated  and  adoring  universe. 

He  is  coming  in  a  threefold  glory. 

He  is  coming  in  the  glory  of  the  Father. 

He  is  coming  as  His  Son  and,  therefore,  not 
only  as  the  Son  of  God,  but  God  the  Son;  as  the 
Word  of  that  Father  by  whom  He  spake  cre- 
ation forth  and  by  whom  He  uttered  His  mind 
and  will. 

He  is  coming  in  the  glory  of  the  angels. 

The  angels  are  the  spirit  men  to  whom  winds 
and  storm  and  forces  of  nature  are  the  easy  in- 
struments of  their  constant  service.  He  will 
come  as  their  master  and  their  Lord,  at  whose 
feet  they  shall  pour  the  tributes  of  their  power 
and  own  Him  Lord  and  King. 

He  is  coming  in  His  own  glory. 

The  glory  of  the  Son  who  was  born  of  a 
woman. 


58  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

The  glory  of  Him  who  was  the  Babe  of  Beth- 
lehem. 

The  man  of  sorrows. 

The  atoning  sacrifice. 

The  risen  man,  the  immortal  man,  the  infinite 
and  eternal  man.  He  who  is  both  God  and  man 
forever. 

And  all  the  signs  of  the  times  indicate  His 
coming  is  at  hand. 

The  signs  in  the  Protestant  Church.  Its  world- 
liness,  its  covetousness,  its  love  of  pleasure,  more 
than  the  love  of  God.  Its  unwillingness  to  en- 
dure sound  doctrine,  its  itching  ears,  heaping  to 
itself  teachers  and  ready  to  be  turned  by  them 
from  the  truth  of  God  to  the  fables  of  men. 

The  signs  in  the  Romish  Church,  the  already 
reaching  forward  to  that  hour  when  once  more 
as  the  "Scarlet"  woman  she  will  for  a  season  be 
feted  and  carried  by  the  nations  of  the  Roman 
Earth. 

Signs  in  the  nations  themselves,  the  rush  of 
multitudes,  the  roar  of  battle,  the  shouting  of 
the  captains,  the  conclave  and  deception  of  the 
kings,  the  getting  ready  for  Armageddon, 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  59 

Signs  in  the  social  world.  The  outbreaking 
of  the  people,  the  throwing  down  of  old  customs, 
the  trampling  under  of  old  covenants,  no  master 
below,  no  master  above. 

Signs  everywhere  that  the  old  order  is  chang- 
ing, the  new  order  coming;  that  new  order 
which  is  disorder,  disaster  and  unrest. 

The  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh. 

Is  the  church  ready  to  welcome  Him? 

Do  Christians  want  Flim  to  come? 

Are  you  as  a  Christian  ready  for  Him?  Are 
your  accounts  all  correct?  Have  you  drawn 
your  contracts  and  drawn  them  with  truth,  the 
truth  that  has  in  it  no  reservation?  Have  you 
lived  the  whole  truth  or  only  a  half  truth?  Do 
you  know  that  a  half  truth  is  worse  than  a  whole 
lie.  Do  you  know  that  a  half  truth  is  the  para- 
mour of  a  whole  lie? 

Make  no  mistake  Christian  man,  Christian 
woman,  you  must  answer  for  your  stewardship. 

And  if  He  should  come  for  you  to-day,  how 
would  you  answer  Him?  If  He  should  ask, 
"What  have  you  done  for  Me  to-day?"  would 
you  answer  Him  with  joyful  gladness  and  say, 


^O  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRISl 

"I  have  done  what  my  hand  found  to  do,  and 
done  it  with  all  my  might  for  Thee." 

What  He  said  to  His  disciples  of  old,  He  is 
saying  now  and  saying  it  to  each  of  you: 

"Watch  and  be  ready." 

And  to  you  who  are  not  saved!  Let  me  warn 
you  not  to  be  living  in  a  fool's  paradise.  This 
world  in  which  you  are  living  is  no  holiday 
world,  and  it  is  no  holiday  answer  you  will  be 
called  to  give  for  living  here;  no  easy  account 
to  render  for  all  the  benefits  He  has  bestowed 
upon  you,  and  the  grace  in  which  He  has  dealt 
with  you. 

You  must  meet  and  answer  to  the  living  God. 
You  must  meet  Him  in  the  person  of  the  cross 
rejected  Son  of  God.  He  is  coming  back,  not 
only  to  recompense  those  who  own  His  cross  as 
an  altar  of  sacrifice  whereon  He  died  for  men, 
He  is  coming  back  to  avenge  that  cross,  and 
charge  it  as  a  crime  against  all  who  do  not  own 
and  confess  His  name. 

You  must  meet  Him  either  as  an  x\venger  or 
a  Redeemer,  as  Saviour  or  as  Judge. 

Let   me   beseech   you   to   hear  the   sounds  of 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST.  6 1 

warning  that  are  coming  down  the  gale,  in  the 
tumult  and  the  storm,  and  the  gathering  black- 
ness as  it  lowers  on  the  rim  of  a  startled  and 
astonished  world. 

Turn  to  God's  Christ  and  now  in  this  hour  of 
His  waiting  and  grace,  claim  redemption  and 
the  saving  shelter  of  His  blood — before  too  late. 


11 

THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  IN  RELA- 
TION TO  DOCTRINE,  TO  PROMISE. 
AND  TO  EXHORTATION 


The  Second  Coming  of  Christ 

In  Relation  to  Doctrine,  to  Promise 
and  to  Exhortation 


X  DESIRE  to  preach  to  you  the  second 
sermon  in  the  series  on,  "The  Second 
Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

My  theme  a  week  ago  was,  "The  Second  Com- 
ing of  Christ,  the  one  event  more  often  spoken  of 
than  any  other  in  the  Bible." 

I  affirmed,  I  demonstrated  and  I  proved  that 
in  its  narration,  delineation  and  illustration,  it 
was  inwrought  with  the  entire  fabric,  the  con- 
struction and  essential  constitution  of  the  whole 
Bible  from  Genesis  to  Revelation. 

My  theme  tonight  is,  "The  Second  Coming  of 
Christ,  the  one  event,  the  one  doctrine  bound  up 
with,  and  fuliilling,  every  fundamental  doctrine, 
every  sublime  promise,  every  radiant  hope,  giv- 
ing inspiration  to  every  practical  exhortation, 
and  furnishing  the  basis  of  apostolic  appeal  to 
the  highest  type  of  Christian  living." 


66  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

My  text  may  be  found  in  Saint  Paul's  Second 
Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  second  chapter  and 
first  verse: 

"Now,  we  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  Com- 
ing of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

There  are  those  who  preach  and  those  who 
teach  and  multitudes  of  Christians  and  others 
who  really  believe  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Sec- 
ond Coming  affords  no  warrant  for  appeal,  either 
to  the  Church  or  the  world ;  that  it  is  a  question- 
able doctrine,  wholly  unimportant,  and  without 
practical  value;  that  its  tendency  is  to  unsettle 
those  who  preach  it  and  all  who  believe  it,  lead- 
ing them  to  speculation,  to  exalted  imagination, 
and  taking  them  away  from  the  serious  and  sober 
side  of  responsible  daily,  Christian  duty. 

I  am  here  tonight  to  affirm,  to  demonstrate 
and  to  prove  that,  so  far  from  this  excuseless  con- 
cept and  almost  brutal  misinterpretation  being 
true,  the  truth  is,  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ 
is  not  only  the  one  event  more  often  spoken  of 
than  any  other  in  the  Bible,  it  is  so  woven  into, 
is  so  absolutely  a  climacteric  necessity  to  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  exhortation  and  promise,  that  if 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  67 

you  should  take  it  out  of  the  Bible,  as  some 
preachers  have  taken  it  out  of  their  theology, 
Christianity  as  a  system  of  divine  revelation,  and 
the  Book  as  a  record  of  it,  would  fall  to  the 
ground,  be  broken  into  fragments  and  swept 
away  as  the  withered  leaves  are  whirled  by  the 
autumn  gale. 

/  affirm  the  Second  Coming  is  bound  up  with  \ 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead  in  Christ. 

'The  dead  in  Christ!" 

What  a  far-flung  phrase  is  that. 

It  bids  us  go  back  to  the  hour  in  time's  begin- 
ning when  the  faith  of  men  and  women  looked 
forward  through  the  intervening  ages  to  the 
Cross,  the  resurrection  and  the  shining  glory, 
saw  the  promises  afar  off,  embraced  them  and 
died.  Through  the  continuing  centuries  they 
died. 

"The  dead  in  Christ!" 

They  are  .everywhere,  under  monumental 
piles,  storied  urn  and  marble  bust,  sleeping  in 
unmarked  graves,  in  the  lonely  church-yard,  be- 
neath the  moaning  waves  of  the  restless  sea; 
those  who  have  died  by  rack,  by  stake  and  tor- 


68  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

ture ;  those  who  have  fallen  on  the  field  of  battle ; 
those  who  have  passed  out  through  the  gates  of 
disease  and  pain;  and  others,  who  have  gone  as 
when  the  sun  sets  and  the  colors  fade  softly  and 
quietly  from  the  evening  sky. 

And  they  shall  rise,  every  one  in  his  own  order, 
in  his  own  company. 

;  Such  an  one  as  Abel,  who  first  told  the  story  of 
redeeming  blood,  and  whose  lamb  to  slaughter 
led,  was  a  picture  of  Him  who  was  the  Crucified, 
and  is  now  the  glorified  Lamb  of  God. 

Enoch,  who  amid  the  slime  and  indescribable 
slush  of  antediluvian  iniquity  walked  with  God, 
and  walked  so  intimately  that  God  took  him  to 
Himself  without  dying.  He  shall  not  rise  from 
the  dead,  but  in  the  company  of  those  who  shall 
rise,  he  shall  stand  forth  among  the  transfigured, 
changed  and  glorified. 

Noah,  a  preacher  of  righteousness  who  for  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years  testified  of  the  way  of 
salvation,  in  the  building  of  the  ark  condemned 
the  world,  and  warned  a  mocking  and  gainsaying 
generation  of  the  woe  to  come;  Noah,  who  from 
within  the  security  of  the  impervious  ark,  heard 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  69 

the  rush  and  thunder  of  the  mighty  flood,  and  in 
every  crash  of  it  heard  the  accents  of  the  Son  of 
God  saying  that  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah  so 
should  it  be  when  the  Son  of  Man  should  come; 
Noah  who,  on  the  hither  side  of  the  flood  died 
in  the  faith  of  Christ. 

These  shall  rise  in  their  own  particular  com- 
pany. 

The  Patriarchs  shall  rise  a  separate  and  won- 
drous company. 

Abraham,  who  kept  the  flame  of  faith  and  de- 
votion burning  on  the  altar  of  the  home. 

Isaac,  who  yielded  to  his  father's  uplifted 
knife  in  the  full  confidence  that,  though  he  died, 
God  would  raise  him  from  the  dead. 

Jacob,  who  when  Pharaoh  said  to  him,  ^'How 
old  art  thou?"  answered,  "The  days  of  the  years 
of  my  pilgrimage  are  an  hundred  and  thirty 
years;  few  and  evil  have  the  days  of  the  years 
of  my  life  been;"  Jacob,  who  when  the  night  of 
death  came  down,  turned  his  face  to  the  east, 
caught  a  gleam  of  the  coming  and  eternal 
morn  and  with  prophetic  vision  foretold  that  the 
sceptre  should  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a  law- 


70  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

giver  from  between  his  feet  till  Shiloh  should 
come;  Jacob  the  memorial  witness  to  the  grace 
of  God. 

Joseph,  the  one  man  in  Holy  Scripture  against 
whom  no  charge  of  sin  is  made;  Joseph,  who 
when  he  was  dying  told  them  to  wrap  him  up 
as  a  mummy  is  wrapped,  put  him  in  an  Egyp- 
tian coffin,  carry  him  up  to  Palestine  the  Prom- 
ised Land,  and  place  him  in  the  cave  of  Mach- 
pelah. 

These  shall  rise  and  shine  in  their  own  par- 
ticular company. 

Such  an  one  as  Moses  shall  rise.  Moses,  who 
stood  on  Sinai's  height  as  it  shook  and  trembled; 
and  who,  amid  the  crash  of  thunders  and  the 
play  of  lightnings,  waited  while  the  finger  of  the 
living  God  wrote  the  ten  commandments  on  their 
tables  of  "unquarried"  stone;  Moses,  who  hid- 
den in  the  cleft  of  the  rock  as  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  passed  by,  beheld  what  that  Lord  should 
be  in  after  days  when,  as  incarnate  God  He 
should  walk  amid  the  sons  of  men ;  Moses,  who 
yonder  on  the  bald  and  barren  top  of  Nebo,  be- 
neath its  cloudless  sky,  at  God's  command  laid 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  71 

down  to  die;  and  whose  incorrupted  body  was 
buried  by  the  hand  of  God;  Moses,  who  fifteen 
hundred  years  after  in  that  body  preserved  from 
corruption  as  the  perfect  type  of  the  body  of  his 
Lord,  appeared  with  Him  upon  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration  and  spake  of  the  decease  which 
He  should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem;  Moses, 
who  shall  revisit  the  earth  and  die  once  more. 

Aaron,  the  brother  of  Moses,  and  his  priestly 
sons. 

Joshua,  the  captain  of  the  Lord's  host  who  led 
them  through  the  divided  waters  of  the  swell- 
ing Jordan. 

These  and  those  associated  with  them,  men 
and  women  of  the  unfaltering  faith,  whose  spir- 
itual eyes  caught  visions  of  the  sacrificial  cross, 
these  shall  rise  together  in  their  band. 

The  prophets  will  rise  in  their  own  company. 

Isaiah,  who  wrote  the  fifty-third  chapter,  that 
chapter  in  which  you  see  the  lamb  dumb  before 
her  shearers ;  in  which  you  see  the  cross  and  the 
thieves  on  either  side,  the  rich  man's  tomb,  the 
resurrection  and  the  triumph  over  death  and  the 
grave;     that    fifty-third    chapter    from    which 


7^  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Philip,  the  evangelist,  preached  the  Gospel  to 
the  wayfaring  eunuch  as  he  went  from  Jerusalem 
to  Gaza  down,  and  ''beginning  at  that  same 
scripture  preached  Jesus  unto  him." 

Jeremiah,  the  weeping  prophet  who,  with  his 
face  washed  in  tears,  looked  forward  to  the  woe 
of  Jerusalem  when  the  holy  city  should  be  tram- 
pled under  foot. 

Ezektel,  who  by  the  river  Chebar  saw  visions 
of  God,  and  one  like  unto  the  Son  of  Man  en- 
throned, high  and  lifted  up  above  the  glory. 

Daniel,  who  under  the  impulse  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  looked  down  the  coming  ages  and  saw 
twenty-five  hundred  years  of  unrolling  human 
history.  He  saw  Cyrus  at  the  head  of  his  Per- 
sian followers,  saw  him  open  the  two  leaved 
gates  of  Babylon  and  overthrow  the  golden  city. 
He  saw  Alexander  arise  from  the  midst  of  the 
Macedonian  hills  and  with  his  brazen  Greeks 
sweep  eastward  across  the  Granicus,  beyond  Ar- 
bela  to  the  Indus  and  the  Oxus,  turn  back  to 
Babylon  and  die  in  the  welter  of  a  drunken  de- 
bauch as  the  hand  of  God  fell  smashingly  upon 
his  far  extended  empire,  breaking  it  into  its  four 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  73 

great  and  prophetic  fragments.  He  looked  on 
and  saw  Rome  rise  like  a  mighty  colossus  from 
the  side  of  the  yellow  Tiber  and  stand  with  one 
foot  on  Europe  and  another  on  Asia.  And  his 
gaze  has  come  on  down  to  the  surge  of  this  red 
war,  and  beyond  it  to  the  rise  of  the  ten  demo- 
cratic kings  and  the  last  Kaiser  who  with  his 
armies  shall  find  their  fateful  overthrow  beneath 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem  and  in  that  "valley  of  de- 
cision," which  is  Jehoshaphat. 

There  is  Hosea  who  writing  centuries  ago 
foretold  the  very  state  of  the  Jews  today,  and 
Amos,  and  Joel,  who  tells  of  the  gathering  of  the 
Gentile  nations  and  the  beating  of  ploughshares 
into  swords  and  pruning  hooks  into  spears  be- 
fore it  is  possible  that  the  swords  shall  be  beaten 
back  into  ploughshares  and  the  spears  into  prun- 
ing hooks;  all  the  minor  prophets  to  Malachi 
the  closing  pages  of  whose  prophecy  is  bathed  in 
the  goldenlight  of  that  sun  of  righteousness  who 
shall  arise  with  healing  in  His  wings. 

These  shall  rise  together,  the  company  of  ''the 
holy  men  of  old"  who  spake  as  they  were  carried 


74  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

along  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  whose  words  are 
the  outbreathed  words  of  God. 

In  one  of  the  great  libraries  of  this  country,  in 
a  building  of  noble  architecture  and  sober,  deco- 
rative beauty,  an  American  artist  has  wrought 
around  the  hall  a  frieze  in  which  the  invo- 
lution and  genius  of  it  consist  in  the  rugged 
and  gothic  like,  solemn  and  all  warning  figures 
of  these  prophets,  a  wondrous  frieze,  speaking 
to  Americans  of  the  need  of  righteousness  and 
truth;  but  in  the  morning  of  the  resurrection 
these  prophets,  risen  and  living  in  glorified 
bodies,  shall  stand  forth  the  shining,  scintillating 
and  quickened  frieze  of  human  immortality,  giv- 
ing emphasis  and  splendor  to  the  redeemed  of 
God  who  with  them  shall  constitute  His  won- 
drous and  living  temple. 

Among  the  risen  and  glorified  throng  shall  be 
seen  such  an  one  as  John  the  Baptist  who  dared 
to  tell  a  debauched  Herod  he  had  no  right  to 
his  brother's  wife;  that  John  the  Baptist  who 
was  put  to  death  because  the  wanton  woman 
whom  he  had  rebuked  sent  her  half-naked  and 
lawless  daughter  to  dance  before  the  king  and 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  75 

SO  appeal  to  his  lust  that  at  her  request  (and  in- 
spired by  her  mother)  he  gave  her  the  Baptist's 
head  in  a  charger;  John,  of  whom  none  born  of 
woman  has  ever  been  greater,  shall  rise  and  con- 
front the  murderous  king  and  this  dancing  girl 
as  together,  they  two,  shall  pass  across  the  thresh- 
old of  a  final  and  deserved  hell.  John  shall  rise 
in  the  benediction  of  the  First  Resurrection  and 
with  him  all  who  like  him  waited  for  the  Mes- 
siah and  prepared  His  way. 

Then  amid  the  resurrection  host  shall  be  seen 
that  mystic  Body,  that  elect  and  covenant  Bride, 
the  Church. 

In  that  Church  there  will  be  distinct  and  sepa- 
rate companies. 

There  shall  stand  forth  the  blessed  company 
of  the  Holy  Apostles.  Peter,  who  drew  forth  his 
sword  to  defend  the  Lord,  then  denied  Him  with 
oaths  and  cursings,  went  out  into  the  black  night 
with  broJ<:en  heart,  bitterness  of  remorse  and 
tears  of  repentance;  Peter,  who  at  the  close  of 
after  days  given  in  full  surrender  to  the  Master's 
name  refused,  when  they  came  to  crucify  him, 
to  be  crucified  like  his  Lord,  but  demanded  they 


76  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

should  nail  him  to  the  cross  head  downward  and 
let  him  die  like  that. 

James,  who  though  he  stood  for  law  and  much 
of  Judaism,  has  given,  under  God,  and  by  his  in- 
spiration, the  clearest  vision  of  this  age  and  dis- 
pensation of  the  "taking  out." 

John,  who  leaned  upon  the  Master's  breast  at 
supper  and  heard  the  inmost  beating  of  His 
heart;  John,  who  dwelt  at  last  in  Patmos  for  his 
Saviour's  sake,  saw  His  glory  above  the  bright- 
ness of  the  noonday  sun,  heard  His  voice  as  the 
sound  of  many  waters;  at  His  dictation  wrote 
the  amazing  seven  letters  to  the  seven  churches, 
and  the  twenty-two  chapters  of  that  book  of 
Revelation  which  like  the  ceiling  of  a  Sistine 
chapel  gives  the  solemn  frescoes  and  the  sculp- 
tured outlines  of  the  Consummation  hour. 

And  last  of  all,  that  "Called"  Apostle  Paul 
whom  the  Lord  met  on  the  road  to  Damascus, 
blinded  for  a  moment  with  His  glory,  then  trans- 
formed him  into  his  "bond  slave"  forever; 
through  whom  He  sent  fourteen  epistles  of  the 
New  Testament  to  the  Church  of  Christ;   that 


THE  SECOxMD  COMING  OF  CHRIST  77 

Paul  whose  one  device  is  bannered  forth  in  his 
far  exultant  cry,  "For  me  to  live  is  Christ." 

This  company  of  Apostles  shall  rise  together. 

And  along  with  them,  the  fathers  of  the 
Church,  the  mention  of  whose  names  recalls 
their  genius,  faith  and  consecration  to  the  cross. 

Company  after  company  will  rise  of  saints  and 
martyrs;  men  and  women  who  did  not  count 
their  lives  dear  unto  them  that  they  might  pro- 
claim the  story  of  redeeming  love  and  grace  and 
seal  their  faith  with  generous  blood ;  multitudes 
w^hose  names  have  never  been  known ;  each  shall 
rise  in  his  or  her  own  order;  and  as  the  stars 
differ  one  from  another  in  glory  so  shall  also 
these. 

And  they  shall  arise  in  the  bodies  in  which 
they  died,  the  same,  and  yet,  not  the  same;  for, 
in  the  body  of  the  believer  there  is  inwrought  at 
regeneration  the  basis  of  a  new,  yet  old,  body. 

Do  with  the  dead  body  of  the  genuine  Chris- 
tian what  you  may,  that  nucleus  of  the  new  one, 
like  the  heart  of  a  planted  seed,  will  be  held  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  in  union  with  the  body  of  the 
risen  Lord,  and  will  wait  the  hour  of  germina- 


78  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

tion,  the  resurrection  hour  when,  at  the  sound  of 
His  voice  who  is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life, 
it  will  bloom  and  burst  forth  to  be  the  dwelling 
place,  the  unfading  garment  of  the  disembodied 
Christian  soul ;  a  body  of  glory,  shining  brighter 
than  any  star  of  night  or  sun  of  day;  a  body  of 
power  and  no  longer  of  weakness;  a  pneumatic, 
and  no  longer  a  soulical,  body ;  a  body  that  shall 
be,  not  the  beastly  minister  to  the  soul,  but  the 
flashing  instrument  of  the  spirit. 

This  is  the  First  Resurrection. 

And  that  word,  "resurrection,"  rang  across 
Asia  and  Europe  like  the  sound  of  silver  trump- 
ets; with  the  far  echo  of  the  sound  there  came  a 
light  as  when  the  dawn  breaks  over  a  long  and 
starless  night. 

To  know  the  sudden  awakening,  the  marvel- 
lous effect  produced  by  the  utterance  of  that 
word,  you  need  to  look  at  the  world  of  that  hour. 

Look  at  Rome! 

What  a  Rome  it  was,  with  the  golden  house  of 
Nero,  the  piled  up  palaces  of  the  Palatine,  the 
Forum  crowded  with  basilicas,  with  arch  and 
column. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  79 

Look  down  the  Appian  way  as  it  stretches  to 
Ostia  and  the  sea.  Receding  right  and  left  as  far 
as  the  eye  can  reach  the  undulating  Campagna, 
filled  with  cypress  tree  and  garden,  and  red- 
roofed  villas  and  far  away  vineyards  where  the 
swelling  grapes  purpled  in  the  sun  of  slanting 
hills;  and  rising  up  and  bordering  this  unique 
and  inimitable  roadway,  temple  like  tombs  and 
monuments  and  marble  bastions.  Draw  near 
and  read  the  sculptured  epitaphs,  each  letter  like 
a  frozen  tear  congealed  in  the  heart  of  despair 
as  the  living  bid  good-bye  to  the  dead,  and  in  the 
stony  speech  of  their  own  dead  hopes,  bid  them 
good-bye  forever. 

Over  those  tombs,  those  milestones  of  the  dead, 
there  breaks  no  single  ray  of  hope. 

Then,  suddenly,  everywhere,  men  went  forth 
proclaiming  the  resurrection  of  a  man  who  had 
triumphed  over  death  and  the  grave,  and  the  as- 
sured resurrection  of  all  who  confessed  their 
faith  upon  Him.  He  had  risen,  He  would  cause 
them  to  rise  and  live  again. 

Death  took  on  a  new  meaning.  Men  went 
forth  to  die;    but  no  longer  entered  it  as  stoics 


8o  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

pass  to  hopeless  doom,  they  approached  it  with 
joyous  smile  and  entered  it  as  conquerors  pass  be 
neath  triumphal  arch  and  scattered  wreaths.  A 
new  name  was  given  to  the  place  of  burial.  It 
was  no  longer  the  spot  where  life  went  down  to 
corruption,  to  dust  and  silence  forever;  on  the 
contrary,  these  graveyards  became  "cemeteries," 
"sleeping  places."  Here  the  body  was  laid  away 
in  the  name  of  Him  who  is  the  victor  over  death, 
laid  away  to  sleep,  until  the  morning  voice 
should  bid  them  wake. 

And  when,  think  you,  shall  this  resurrection 
take  place? 

I  answer  you — 

At  the  SECOND  COMING  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

As  it  is  written: 

"For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ 
shall  all  be  made  alive.  But  every  man  in  his  own 
order;  Christ  the  first  fruits;  afterward  they 
that  are  Christ's,  at  His  Coming  .  .  .  For  the 
Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a 
shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the 
trump  of  God :  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  8  i 

first  .  .  .  for  the  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the 
dead  shall  be  raised  incorruptible." 

Hark!  "If  a  man  die  shall  he  live  again?" 

Who  is  asking  that?  It  is  Job,  asking  it  out  of 
the  long,  long  ago. 

Let  us  answer  him. 

"Yes,  Job,  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  and 
live  again.  They  shall  rise,  and  live  and  be  im- 
mortal when  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  shall  come 
a  second  time." 

Take  away  the  Second  Coming,  spiritualize 
it,  take  it  out  of  the  preaching,  repudiate  it,  say 
Paul  and  all  who  taught  it  were  mistaken. 

What  then? 

I  answer,  apart  from  the  Second  Coming  of 
Christ  you  have  not  a  single  fragment  of  Scrip- 
ture which,  under  legitimate  exegesis,  warrants 
you  even  to  expect  the  resurrection.  - 

Without  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ  there 
never  will  he  a  resurrection  of  the  dead  in  Christ. 

If  you  deny  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ, 
then  go  to  the  graves  of  those  you  loved,  em- 
balmed in  your  tears  and  laid  away  in  hope,  and 
write  over  them  the  words,  "never-more." 


82  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

If  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  does  not  come  a  Sec- 
ond time  every  Christian  who  dies  will  remain 
a  disembodied  ghost  forever. 

And  yet  there  are  would-be  wise  and  advanced 
teachers  who  talk  about  the  unimportance  of  the 
Second  Coming. 

Nay!  The  Second  Coming  is  so  important,  so 
vital  to  faith  and  hope,  that  it  is  bound  up  with, 
inwrought  with  the  whole  principle  and  promise 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  Christian  dead,  the 
dead  in  Christ. 

//  IS  bound  up  with  the  doctrine  and  promise 
of  the  transfiguration  of  the  living. 

It  is  written,  that  by  one  man  sin  entered  the 
world  and  death  by  sin,  and  that  death  has  passed 
upon  all  men;  and  that  it  is  appointed  unto  men 
once  to  die. 

From  the  beginning  the  scythe  of  death  has 
swung  an  unhindered  swath.  It  has  spared 
neither  rank  nor  sex,  nor  age;  king  and  cotter, 
prince  and  peasant,  high  and  low,  young  and  old, 
have  fallen  before  it  like  ripened  grain  before 
the  reaper's  blade. 

Those  of  us  who  have  passed  the  meridian  of 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  83 

life  have  seen  them  go,  great  figures  on  the  hori- 
zon of  time;  we  have  seen  friends  and  relatives 
fall  before  the  unhesitating  blow.  We  who  are 
alive  begin  to  look  at  the  gray  hairs  swiftly  and 
surely  coming  amid  the  black  or  brown,  at  the 
wrinkles  multiplying  on  face,  on  neck  and  hands. 
We  wonder  why  we  cannot  walk  so  far  today,  or 
do  so  much,  or  so  quickly  in  a  day  as  we  used 
to  do.  The  fact  is,  death  is  approaching  us,  even 
while  we  talk  of  life  and  years  and  plans.  Be- 
cause death  cannot  be  ignored;  because  there  is 
but  a  step  betwixt  us  and  that  sudden  snapping 
of  the  chord,  that  instant  breaking  of  the  pitcher 
at  the  well,  business,  contracts,  marriage,  are 
made  in  view  of  death;  and  because  of  its  all- 
pervading  presence  and  demand,  men  every- 
where say  (and  it  is  a  phrase  common  to  all  lan- 
guage), '^one  thing  is  certain,  and  that  is,  death/' 

And  yet,  men  and  women,  hear  me! 

The  one  thing  that  is  absolutely  uncertain  is 
death. 

Nothing  in  all  the  world  is  so  uncertain  as 
death — to  the  Christian.  It  is  uncertain  because 
it  is  absolutely  sure  and  certain  there  will  be  a 


§4  THE  SECOND  COMIXG  OF  CHRIST 

generation  of  Christians  on  the  earth  uho  -nil I 
never  die. 

They  will  be  going  about  their  daily  avoca- 
tions. Some  will  be  earning  burdens,  stabbing 
themselves  with  the  sharp  daggers  of  perplexity; 
some  will  be  standing  at  the  cross-roads  of  hesi- 
tation, not  knowing  whether  to  turn  to  the  right 
or  the  left,  and  the  night  and  darkness  coming 
down.  Some  will  be  old  and  some  will  be  young. 
Some  will  be  languishing  on  beds  of  pain,  and 
some  may  be  entering  into  the  shadow  of  death; 
when,  suddenly,  each  shall  feel  a  thrill,  a  quiver, 
a  throb  of  ecstasy  and  delight,  a  sense  of  freedom 
and  splendid  power;  the  dim  eyes  will  see,  the 
feeble  knees  will  become  strong,  the  nervous, 
trembling  hands  will  become  fresh  and  voung. 
Youth,  like  an  elixir,  will  run  through  evers' 
fibre,  each  Christian  shall  shine,  and  each  shall 
see  the  other  shine  in  immortal  beauty.  They 
shall  stand  changed,  transfigured,  glorified; 
Christians  who  shall  never  be  measured  for  a 
shroud,  and  for  whose  bodies  the  graves  shall 
never  yawn. 

And  when  is  this  to  be? 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  85 

I  answer,  At  the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

As  it  is  written: 

"We  shall  not  all  sleep  (we  shall  not  all  die) 
but  we  shall  all  be  changed,  in  a  moment,  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye,  at  the  last  trump :  for  the 
trumpet  shall  sound  .  .  .  and  we  shall  be 
changed  (transformed)  for  this  corruptible  must 
put  on  incorruption,  and  this  mortal  must  put  on 
immortality.'* 

Immortality. 

What  a  word  is  that !  How  men  have  dreamed 
of  it,  and  sung  of  it,  and  written  of  it,  and  sighed 
and  turned  their  faces  to  the  wall  and  given  it  up. 

Years  ago  I  stood  before  the  Rostra  in  the 
Forum  and  tried  to  recall  the  hour  when  Cicero, 
yonder  on  the  Velian  hill  perhaps,  talked  of  im- 
mortalit}^,  read  the  Phaedo  and  sighingly  said: 
"Plato  thou  reasonest  well,  but — " 

And  that  was  all. 

And  all  the  speech  and  all  the  writing,  and  all 
the  rhetoric,  and  all  the  philosophizing  to-day, 
leaves  man  standing  at  the  edge  of  the  grave 
without  any  answer  that  does  not  make  it  a  guess, 


86  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

forcing  from  his  lips  the  bitter  soliloquy,  "To  be 
or  not  to  be — that  is  the  question?'* 

But,  listen  to  the  proclamation  that  the  Son  of 
God  is  coming  a  Second  time,  and  that  His  shout 
will  ring  down  the  heavens  and  raise  the  dead, 
and  then,  it  is  written : 

^^We  which  are  alive  and  remain,  shall  be 
caught  up  together  with  them  in  the  clouds,  to 
meet  the  Lord  in  the  air :  and  so  shall  we  ever  be 
with  the  Lord." 

The  dead  raised,  the  living  changed  at  the 
Second  Coming;  and  this  might  be  any  moment, 
any  hour,  ^^when  ye  think  not." 

And  yet,  there  are  men  standing  in  the  pulpit 
with  an  open  Bible  and  the  very  promise  and  as- 
surance of  God  leaping  to  their  vision,  who  actu- 
ally dare  to  say  to  the  hungry  souls  before  them 
that  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ  is  an  unimpor- 
tant doctrine,  a  questionable  event. 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  not  only  bound  up  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  in  Christ  and  the  cer- 
tainty of  a  non-dying  and  gloriously  transfigured 
generation  of  Christiaiis,  it  is  hound  up  with  the 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  87 

doctrine  of  sons  hip   with   God  and  likeness  to  \ 
Christ. 

Sonship  with  God  is  not  a  natural  prerogative. 
All  men  are  not  sons  of  God.  God  is  not  the 
Father  of  all  men.  He  is  the  Creator  of  all  men, 
but  Father  only  of  those  who  believe  in  His  Son ; 
as  it  is  written: 

"For  ye  are  all  the  children  of  God  by  faith 
in  Christ  Jesus." 

The  moment  an  individual  believes  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ;  the  moment  he  offers  Him 
by  faith  as  his  sin-offering,  his  sacrifice  for  sin 
and  his  personal  substitute,  that  moment  God  the 
Father  accepts  the  death  of  Christ  on  the  cross 
as  though  the  believer  had  been  executed  and 
done  to  death  there.  He  transfers  the  obedience 
of  Christ  to  the  benefit  of  the  believer.  He  ac- 
cepts Christ  risen  from  the  dead  as  his  repre- 
sentative, as  his  righteousness;  so  that  it  is  writ- 
ten, "God  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who 
knew  no  sin;  that  we  might  be  made  the  right- 
eousness of  God  in  him/'  Then  Christ  the  risen 
Lord  as  the  Second  Man,  as  the  new  head  of  the 
race,  communicates  His  own  perfect  life  to  the 


88  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

believer  and  gives  him  the  Holy  Spirit  to  dwell 
in  him  as  the  seal  of  redemption,  the  guarantee 
of  salvation,  and  the  pledge  of  immortality. 
The  believer  is  then  linked  up  to  the  body  and 
life  of  the  Lord.  He  becomes  so  identified  with 
Him  that  it  is  said,  he  is  ''joined  to  the  Lord," 
and  that  he  is  ''one  spirit''  with  Him,  of  His  very 
essence.  He  becomes  a  son  of  God,  not  onlv  bv 
sacrificial  and  legal  relations  but  by  actual  union 
with  the  Father  through  the  Son. 

But,  while  as  believers,  we  receive  a  new  life, 
a  new  spiritual  nature,  and  exalted,  heavenlv  de- 
sires, the  old  nature  remains  in  us.  It  never 
changes.  You  may  starve  a  tiger,  so  starve  him 
that  you  can  keep  him  under.  Give  him  a  taste 
of  blood  and  he  will  turn  on  you  for  more.  This 
old  nature  is  the  flesh,  and  will  be  flesh  to  the  end 
of  the  age.  It  is  our  privilege  to  starve  it  and 
keep  it  under  by  means  of  the  new  nature;  for, 
while  we  have  two  natures  as  Christians,  we  have 
but  one  responsibility,  and  one  responsibility  be- 
cause we  remain  but  one  personality.  Again  and 
again  we  fail  to  exercise  that  responsibility, 
gratify  the  deniand  of  the  old  nature,  and  falling 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  89 

under  its  claims  do  not  live  in  nor  reveal  the  di- 
vine life  that  is  ours  by  spiritual  birthright. 
The  world  which  never  reads  the  Bible  but  reads 
us  as  living  epistles  takes  note  of  our  failures  and 
registers  them  against  the  profession  we  make  as 
sons  of  God ;  but  even  when  a  Christian  lives  on 
the  highest  plane  and  seems  to  fulfill  every  re- 
quirement of  the  profession  he  makes,  even  then 
the  world,  while  admitting  his  moral  value,  can- 
not see  that  essentially  he  is  any  different  from 
others  who  make  no  such  profession.  They  do 
not  believe  he  has  any  distinct  nature,  or  is  any 
more  entitled  to  be  called  a  son  of  God.  The 
truth  is,  we  are  kings  and  princes  in  disguise. 
The  world  does  not  know  us;  as  it  is  written: 
^'The  world  knoweth  us  not."  But  our  sonship 
shall  be  made  manifest  and  our  likeness  unto 
Christ  revealed  when  He  Himself  shall  come  a 
SECOND  time. 

Once  Peter  the  Great,  so  it  is  said,  after  a 
day's  work  as  a  common  laborer  in  the  shipyard 
(but  his  identity  unknown)  stood  with  a  group 
of  fellow-laborers  not  far  from  where  the  Im- 
perial Guards  were  changed.     The  men  wer^ 


90  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

full  of  talk  and  grew  quite  bitter  in  their  de- 
nunciation of  the  government,  and  the  condi- 
tion of  the  times;  as  the  group  increased  the 
matter  for  a  moment  looked  moblike  and  threat- 
ening. Just  then  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  was 
heard  with  its  vibrant  note  quavering  upon  the 
frosty  air.  In  a  moment  Peter  loosed  and  flung 
back  his  workman's  blouse  and  revealed  beneath 
it  the  uniform  of  the  Guard,  blazing  with  the  in- 
signia of  royalty.  There  was  silence  in  the 
crowd,  then  v/ith  one  accord  they  fell  at  his  feet 
to  own  their  Czar.  Our  Lord  is  coming,  the 
trumpet  will  sound,  and  the  fleshly  garment  that 
doth  disguise  us  will  be  flung  aside  and  we  shall 
stand  forth  in  all  the  beauty  and  all  the  glory  of 
our  imperial  sonship. 

Many  years  ago  when  preaching  in  the  couii- 
try-side,  some  one  gave  me  a  half-dozen  poplar 
sticks  with  huge  lumps  of  dried  mud  on  the  ends, 
telling  me  to  keep  them  in  my  study;  that  some 
day  those  mud  lumps  would  open  and  I  would 
be  surprised.  I  placed  them  in  a  long  neck  jar 
and  forgot  them.  Some  weeks  later  when  re- 
turning to  my  study  after  a  day  spent  in  pastoral 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  91 

visitation,  I  noticed  the  sticks  were  disarranged, 
some  had  fallen  on  the  table,  all  were  cracked 
and  pieces  of  dried  clay  lay  on  the  floor.  I  won- 
dered who  had  been  disturbing  things  when  a 
whirring  sound  made  me  look  up,  and  floating 
gracefully  here  and  there  against  the  walls  were 
six  of  the  largest  and  finest  red-bodied  moths  I 
had  ever  seen.  They  had  been  shut  up  as  chrys- 
alids  within  these  muddy  cases,  and  in  the  ful- 
ness of  their  time  had  broken  forth  and  soared 
into  a  realm  of  light  and  air.  Like  them,  we  too, 
the  dead  and  the  living  shall  break  forth  from 
this  muddy  vesture  of  mortality  which  doth  en- 
cumber us,  soar  into  the  realm  of  light  and  air  to 
meet  a  descending  Lord  and  be  like  Him. 

It  is  written,  "We  shall  be  like  him;  for  we 
shall  see  him  as  he  is." 

As  the  dawn  breaks  through  the  night  and 
paints  the  lifted  mountain  peak  with  roseate  hue, 
fills  the  valley  with  its  waves  of  light,  turns  river, 
rivulet  and  stream  to  silver  and  pours  forth  its 
illumination,  until  each  tree  and  branch  and 
stone  and  blade  of  grass  stands  forth  as  though 


92  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

it  had  been  etched  in  fire  and  flame  by  artist 
needle;  so,  at  the  sight  of  Him,  each  child  of 
God  will  be  transfigured,  clothed  upon  with 
heavenly  beauty,  and  made  like  unto  Him. 

And  this  apocalypse  of  personal  splendor,  let 
it  be  remembered,  is  at  the  SECOND  COMING  of 
our  Lord. 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  bound  up  uith  the  doctrine  and  the  promise 
of  rewards. 

As  believers  we  are  saved  without  good  works 
of  any  sort;  but  saved  that  we  may  do  good 
works  of  every  sort.  We  do  nothing  to  be  saved, 
that  we  may  do  something  after  we  are  saved. 
We  are  not  only  called  to  faith  but  service  in  His 
name.  The  Christian  who  says  he  believes  and 
then  sits  down  and  is  a  spiritual  do-nothing  is  a 
pitiful  puzzle  to  the  angels  of  God  and  a  source 
of  mockery  and  rejoicing  to  the  demons  of  the 
pit;  and  the  time  is  coming  when  as  believers 
we  shall  have  to  render  an  account  to  the  Lord 
for  the  gifts  He  has  bestowed  upon  us,  for  the 
opportunities  He  has  placed  before  us,  and  for 
the  devotion  or  the  lack  of  it  which  mav  have 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  93 

been  the  character  of  our  days.  No  matter  how 
small  the  service  if  it  has  been  rendered  in  His 
name  to  the  full  of  our  ability  and  opportunity, 
we  shall  receive  a  reward. 

But  when  are  the  rewards  to  be  given? 

They  are  not  to  be  given  at  death,  when  the 
departing  believer  enters  Heaven. 

Not  a  single  saint  of  God  has  yet  been  re- 
warded. 

Paul  has  not  received  his  reward. 

Listen  to  what  he  says : 

'*I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished 
my  course.  I  have  kept  the  faith;  henceforth 
there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  righteousness, 
which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  judge,  shall  give 
me  at  that  day." 

And  what  is  that  day? 

When  the  Lord  comes  a  SECOND  time ;  as  it  is 
written : 

"The  Son  .of  man  shall  come  in  the  glory  of 
his  Father,  with  his  angels,  and  then  shall  he  re- 
ward every  man  according  to  his  works." 

And  again  it  is  written: 


94  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

''Behold,  I  come  quickly;  and  my  reward  is 
with  me,  to  give  every  man  as  his  work  shall  be." 

If  you  have  only  given  a  cup  of  cold  water  in 
His  name,  or  given  the  glad  hand  for  His  sake 
that  you  might  lift  some  soul  out  of  the  deep  and 
guide  his  feet  into  the  way  of  life,  you  will  not 
be  forgotten ;  you  will  get  your  reward  when  the 
Lord  comes. 

But  mark  this!  The  Lord  is  so  interested  in 
His  own  coming.  He  is  waiting  for  it  with  such 
patience,  such  hope,  and  such  profound  interest, 
that  His  attention  is  specially  drawn  to  those 
who  love  the  thought  of  it,  and  wish  Him  to 
come;  so  much  do  those  who  love  the  SECOND 
COMING  appeal  to  the  Lord  that  in  the  day  when 
Fie  is  revealed  He  will  give  a  special  crown  to 
those  who  love  it,  have  been  devoted  to  it,  and 
stood  forth  to  proclaim  it ;   as  it  is  written : 

"And  not  to  me  only  (that  is,  not  to  Paul  only 
will  a  crown  of  righteousness  be  given)  but  unto 
all  them  that  love  his  appearing." 

If  you  wish  a  crown  of  righteousness  let  your 
heart  go  out  in  love  and  devotion  and  earnest  de- 
light at  the  thought  of  His  SECOND  COMING. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  95 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  bound  up  with  the  promise  of  satisfaction. 

Satisfied! 

Who  in  this  world  has  ever  been  satisfied? 

Go  back  to  that  far  time  when  Solomon  was 
king. 

He  had  wealth  such  as  no  king  before  nor 
since ;  gold  and  silver  poured  into  his  coffers  like 
waters  from  exhaustless  mountain  springs.  He 
built  palaces  and  temples.  He  had  stables  with 
thousands  of  horses.  He  had  chariots.  He  made 
parks  and  lakes  and  water  courses.  He  planted 
gardens  and  orchards.  He  had  pools  and  ponds 
for  fish  of  all  sorts.  He  gathered  musicians  and 
instruments  of  music.  He  had  men  servants  and 
maid  servants  born  in  his  house.  His  table  was 
loaded  and  groaning  with  luxuries.  He  was 
clothed  in  robes  woven  on  Tyrian  looms.  He 
gave  himself  up  to  art,  to  literature.  He  had 
more  wisdom.and  knowledge  than  any  man  who 
ever  lived  before  or  since.  He  gave  himself  up 
to  every  desire  of  his  heart.  He  refrained  his 
hand  from  nothing  his  heart  desired.  He  be- 
came an  epicure,  a  gourmand,  a  materialist,  a 


96  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

confirmed  sensualist.  He  had  a  harem  of  seven 
hundred  women,  wives,  concubines  and  mis- 
tresses. He  drank  of  every  fountain.  He  tasted 
of  every  joy. 

His  glory  was  so  great,  the  Queen  of  Sheba 
who  came  from  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth 
to  see  him,  said  the  half  had  not  been  told;  and 
after  he  had  tasted  every  spring  of  human  pleas- 
ure, drained  every  cup  to  the  dregs  and  passed 
through  every  experience  wealth  and  absolute 
power  could  give,  he  cried  out  that  all  was  vanity 
of  vanities,  and  there  was  no  profit  in  anything 
under  the  sun. 

Satisfied!  None  has  ever  been  satisfied.  Not 
Midas,  turning  to  gold  all  things  he  touched; 
not  Croesus,  burning  on  his  funeral  pyre  of 
heaped  up  and  useless  wealth. 

Satisfied!  Not  the  beggar  at  the  gate;  not  the 
decent  poverty  that  painfully  seeks  to  make  ends 
meet;  not  the  man  whose  desires  find  no  finan- 
cial barrier.  Go  under  the  lustre  of  the  rich  man's 
chandeliers,  sink  your  feet  in  the  yielding  soft- 
ness of  his  easy  carpets,  walk  through  his  galleries 
of    priceless    paintings,    admire    his    garnered 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  97 

bibelots  from  every  land,  let  him  tell  with  pride 
of  his  poor  beginnings  and  the  plans  his  ambition 
and  wealth  make  possible ;  and  in  an  unguarded 
moment  you  will  hear  him  sigh  and  know  there 
is  yet  some  one,  and  lacking,  thing,  that  keeps 
him  from  being  satisfied. 

Satisfied!  O  no,  men  are  not  satisfied.  They 
are  tossed  and  restless,  and  the  chief  desire  of 
their  hearts,  the  one  thing,  whatever  it  may  be 
which  they  imagine  will  make  them  satisfied, 
like  the  will  o'  the  wisp,  flies  ever  before  and 
eludes  them. 

ButharkI 

I  hear  a  voice  coming  across  the  ages. 

''I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  in  thy 
likeness." 

What  is  that?  It  Is  the  sound  of  a  harp  and  the 
refrain  of  a  song.  It  is  David  the  king  and  he 
sings  and  he  says,  he  shall  be  satisfied,  satisfied 
when  he  awakes  in  the  likeness  of  the  Lord. 

He  and  all  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  awake  at 
the  SECOND  COMING  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Yes,  my  soul!  that  is  the  hour  of  satisfaction; 


98  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

that  is  the  one  event  that  will  not  disappoint — - 
THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST. 

And  when  He  comes  we  shall  fall  at  His  feet 
and  confess  the  half  has  never  been  told  us. 

In  any  hour  of  sorrow  or  trial  or  burden  and 
great  unreached  desire,  remember,  you  shall  be 
satisfied  and  fully  satisfied  when  Jesus  Comes. 
Your  perfect  satisfaction  shall  greet  you  at  His 
SECOND  COMING. 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ i 
is  bound  up  with  the  doctrine  of  the  recognition! 
of  the  dead. 

There  is  one  question  which  rises  involunta- 
rily to  the  lips  of  those  who  are  bereaved  of  their 
loved  ones.    They  ask: 

"Shall  we  see  and  know  them  again?  In  the 
great  hereafter  shall  we  meet  and  joyfully  greet 
each  other?" 

And  this  question  is  asked  because  death  is 
a  great  awakener  and  a  great  revealer.  When 
some  one  with  whom  we  have  been  living  is 
suddenly  taken  from  us  we  realize  we  have  not 
appreciated  them  as  we  should;  that  we  have 
been  almost  brutal  with  them  at  times,  not  in 


'  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  99 

word  or  deed,  but  in  the  lack  of  that  warmth, 
that  sincere  recognition,  we  should  have  given 
them ;  and  we  feel  we  would  they  might  be  given 
to  us  again  that  we  might  repair  the  sad  mistakes, 
and  that  we  might  try  over  again  and  make  the 
relationship  of  life  to  life  all  it  should  have  been. 

Some  years  ago  at  the  close  of  one  of  my  meet- 
ings a  man  of  about  forty  or  thereabout  ap- 
proached me,  and  I  saw  by  his  manner  that  he 
was  greatly  moved.  With  a  sort  of  hesitating 
and  yet  earnest  manner  he  said: 

"Do  you  think  we  shall  know  each  other  in 
Heaven?" 

He  saw  my  look  of  inquiry.  Then  he  told  me 
he  was  the  youngest  of  three  boys.  The  family 
lived  in  the  New  England  hills  on  a  small  and 
scrubby  farm.  The  father  died.  The  mother 
and  the  two  boys  endeavored  to  carry  on  the 
home.  This  youngest  son  had  been  of  a  hasty 
and  passionate  temper.  He  was  quick  to  speak, 
saying  often  rash  and  regrettable  things,  but  just 
as  quickly  and  sincerely  sorry  for  them.  His 
mother  was  devoted  to  him,  and  in  spite  of  his 
upconscious  tendency  to  a  lawless  spirit,  loved 


lOO  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

his  mother.  He  went  away  from  home.  He 
married,  had  a  family,  was  successful.  Twice  a 
year  perhaps,  once  always,  he  would  visit  the  old 
homestead,  while  the  mother,  growing  old,  still 
lived  with  the  eldest  son.  She  had  recently  died 
— and  looking  at  me,  this  one-time  boy  and  now 
grown  and  successful  man,  said,  with  a  tremor  in 
his  voice  he  could  not  conceal : 

"Mother  died  some  weeks  ago.  I  went  back 
to  the  old  hills  to  see  her  laid  away  side  by  side 
with  my  father  in  the  village  church-yard; 
and  Doctor  Haldeman,"  he  said,  "when  I  stood 
in  the  narrow  little  parlor  with  its  faded  paper 
on  the  walls,  and  looked  down  at  the  thin,  worn 
face  and  the  white  hair,  all  my  boyhood  days 
came  back  to  me,  and  I  saw  my  mother  as  I  never 
saw  her  before.  I  saw  how  often  she  had  just 
waited  for  some  word  from  me  that  might  have 
told  her  how  I  really  loved  her  and  appreciated 
her;  and  Doctor,"  he  said,  and  the  man  moved 
me  to  the  core  as  he  said  it,  "Doctor,  I'd  give  ten 
thousand  dollars  if  I  could  have  that  little  old 
mother  back  again  for  ten  minutes  that  I  might 
just  tell  her  all  that  is  in  my  heart  about  her  now, 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  lOl 

Do  you  think  I'll— I'll  have  that  chance,  Doc- 
tor?" 

And  I  tell  you  what  I  told  him,  that  if  you 
sincerely  believe  in  the  Son  of  God  as  your  Re- 
deemer and  Lord,  you  will  meet  and  know  the 
Christian  dead  who  have  gone  beyond  you. 

Listen  to  the  word  of  comfort  that  comes  sing- 
ing to  your  soul  from  the  lips  of  an  inspired 
apostle: 

"Then  shall  I  know  even  as  also  I  am  known." 

And  that  ''then'  shall  be  when  He  comes  a 
SECOND  time:  when  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is; 
for,  it  is  written  that  He,  Himself,  shall  descend 
from  heaven.  He  will  raise  the  dead,  transfigure 
the  living  and  both  shall  be  caught  up  together 
to  meet  Him  in  the  air;  and  so  shall  we  ever  be 
with  the  Lord;  and  because  of  this  the  apostle 
bids  us  not  to  sorrow  over  our  dead  even  as 
others  which  have  no  hope;  and  to  comfort  one 
another  with  the  assurance  that  at  the  Lord's 
Coming  we  shall  be  together  again. 

It  must  be  plain  to  you  and  the  simplest  or 
most  callous  mind  that  should  the  Lord  come 
and  we  not  know  each  other  the  exhortation  to 


102  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

comfort  one  another  with  the  thought  of  the 
risen  dead  and  the  transfigured  living  meeting 
together  in  His  presence  would  be  an  exhorta- 
tion of  meaningless  and  useless  words  distilling 
for  us,  not  the  essence  of  comfort,  but  of  bitter- 
ness and  disappointed  longing. 

Nay,  there  shall  be  no  disappointment.  We 
shall  know  even  as  we  are  known,  and  that  when 
our  Lord  comes  the  SECOND  time. 

Resurrection  from  the  dead,  transfiguration  of 
the  living,  the  manifestation  of  sonship  with 
God,  likeness  to  Christ,  rewards  of  faith  and 
service,  the  satisfied  soul,  recognition  and  cogni- 
tion of  the  dead,  are  all  bound  up  with,  and  de- 
pendent for  their  fulfilment  on,  the  Coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

And  yet  men  in  the  face  of  all  this  have  the 
hardihood  to  say  it  is  an  unimportant  doctrine; 
and  that  it  is  an  unsettling  and  disturbing  theme 
to  preach. 

What  shall  be  said  of  those,  whether  in  pulpit 
or  pew,  who  have  either  the  boldness  or  the  ig- 
norance to  utter  such  things? 

'Not   only   is   the  Second    Coming    of   Christ 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  103 

bound  up  with  every  fundamental  doctrine,  it  is 
equally  bound  up  with  every  sublime  promise. 

It  is  bound  up  with  the  promise  of  victory 
over  the  devil. 

God  never  created  a  devil. 

He  created  an  angel  of  the  rank  of  cherubim 
and  their  head,  beautiful,  full  of  wisdom,  might 
and  power.  God  gave  him  this  fresh  created 
world  as  a  province  of  the  infinite  empire.  He 
was  carried  away  with  the  contemplation  of 
himself,  saw  in  himself  limitless  possibilities 
of  rulership  and  glory,  was  unwilling  to  sub- 
ordinate his  immense  personality  to  that  of  an- 
other, revolted  against  the  all-enclosing  impact 
of  the  divine  presence,  determined  to  break 
through,  make  his  own  selfhood  the  sufficient 
and  all-pervading  environment,  rebelled  against 
God  and  lost  the  world.  The  second  verse  of  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  tells  us  that  the  earth 
which  had  originally  been  created  under  the 
light  of  sun  and  moon  and  stars,  fell  into  chaos 
from  which  after  a  season  whose  length  is  not 
determined  God  delivered  It,  reforming  it  in 
six  days  and  creating  man,  set  him  up  in  the 


104  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

place  of  Satan  to  be  its  head,  the  ruler  and  ad- 
ministrator. 

Satan  led  man  to  turn  his  back  upon  the  of- 
fered partnership  with  God,  and  enter  into  part- 
nership with  himself.  In  this  Satan  became  the 
master  and  man  the  dupe  and  slave.  He  has  led 
man  into  idolatry,  into  all  false  religions,  into 
war  and  rapine,  murder  and  lust.  He  has  in- 
vented false  philosophies,  and  transforming  him- 
self into  an  angel  of  light,  has  sent  forth  his  min- 
isters as  ministers  of  righteousness,  but  a  right- 
eousness which  denies  the  blood. 

He  is  the  adversary  of  God  and  man. 

No  sooner  do  you  seek  the  path  of  righteous- 
ness, of  spirituality,  and  truth  than  you  find  him 
flinging  his  barricades  across  the  way,  or  thrust- 
ing out  the  hand  that  will  misguide  and  lead 
astray.  He  is  every  where  and  in  all  things  op- 
posed to  God,  and  the  adversary  of  whatsoever 
may  turn  the  thoughts  of  men  to  God. 

Go,  attend  your  evening  prayer-meeting.  At 
its  close  go  down  the  brightly  illuminated  street. 
Everywhere  red  lips,  white  hands,  jewelled 
fingers,  lives  full  of  passion,  the  glare,  the  glitter, 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  105 

the  clink  of  glass,  the  sparkle  of  wine,  the  care- 
less laughter,  the  insidious  speech,  the  wide-flung 
doors  of  amusement,  the  offered  pleasures  of  sin, 
at  every  turn  the  invitation  to  gratify,  to  culti- 
vate the  flesh,  to  excite  the  blood,  to  stir  the  ani- 
mal, to  set  on  fire  the  veins,  to  appeal  to  ambi- 
tion, to  pride,  to  envy,  to  disregard  all  restraint 
and — to  forget  God. 

Talk  about  converting  the  world  by  the  Gos- 
pel, changing,  moulding,  making  over  all  this 
steaming,  sweating,  seething  mass  of  unspiritual 
flesh  and  palpitating  sensualism,  making  it  over 
into  cool,  clean  unfevered  spirituality!  Talk 
about  the  Church,  by  the  doors  of  whose  dark- 
ened buildings  the  crowd  is  surging;  talk  about 
the  Church  overthrowing  the  devil  and  bringing 
in  the  reign  of  abiding  purity,  chastity  and  devo- 
tion to  the  things  of  God  I 

Let  the  carnival  of  the  devil,  this  grip  of 
Satan  on  the  bodies,  on  the  unloosed  animalism 
of  man,  his  directing  and  compelling  inspiration 
for  the  mad  service  he  invites  warn  you  against 
the  folly  of  any  such  concept. 

Nor  is  he  simply  the  smiling  fiend  behind  the 


.  io6  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

gay  and  mocking  crowd,  but  in  the  name  of 
science,  free  thought,  progressive  ideas  and  lib- 
eral spirit;  in  the  name  of  culture  and  charity 
and  the  betterment  of  human  life  every  day  lead- 
ing men  away  from  the  written  Word  of  God, 
away  from  the  light  that  shines  from  an  open 
grave,  shutting  out  from  men  the  vision  of  a  risen 
and  a  loving  Christ  who  is  alone  the  God  to  be 
revealed  to  men. 

Without  effort  every  day  he  seems  to  win  and 
the  crowd  like  dumb  driven  cattle  follow  in  the 
way. 

He  seems  to  win,  and  God  again  and  again 
seems  far  off,  and  faith  faints,  and  hope  seems 
wingless. 

Is  it  always  to  be  so? 

No!  Thank  God.  No.  The  devil  is  to  be 
overthrown  and  bound  and  wholly  vanquished 
at  the  last.  The  long  descending  career  from 
the  cherubic  glory  will  reach  its  nadir,  the  end 
will  come.  God  and  Christ  and  righteousness 
will  win. 

But  how  and  when? 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  lO? 

Again  I  answer  you — at  the  SECOND  Coming 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

It  will  be  at  that  hour  and  under  those  circum- 
stances so  tremendously  painted  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  Revela- 
tion; in  that  hour  when  He  shall  come  forth 
followed  by  the  armies  of  heaven,  riding  on  the 
steeds  of  judgment.  Then  shall  He  lay  hold  on 
Satan,  bind  him,  cast  him  into  the  pit  and  shut 
him  up  for  a  thousand  years.  From  thence  shall 
he  be  transferred  finally  to  that  cage  whose  every 
bar  is  a  flame  of  fire ;  and  where  forever  he  shall 
be  tormented  as  the  result  of  that  consciousness 
which  sought  to  eliminate  from  itself  the  will 
and  way  of  God.  Forever  as  a  prisoner  of  state, 
he  shall  be  the  eternal  witness  that  he  who  seeks 
to  exalt  himself  shall  be  cast  down;  from  the 
depths  of  his  awful  misery  he  shall  bear  witness 
to  the  exaltation  of  that  Christ  who,  although 
from  unbegun  eternity  clothed  with  the  form 
and  appearing  of  God  and  from  everlasting  His 
visibility  and  word  of  utterance,  did  not.  Satan- 
like, grasp  at  and  hold  on  to  that  equality,  but 
for  the  sake  of  us  men  and  our  redemption,  and, 


lo8  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

for  the  display  of  divine  and  infinite  grace  was 
willing  to  lay  it  aside,  put  ofif  the  robe  of  His 
splendor,  and  clothe  Himself  with  the  limita- 
tion, the  poverty  and  humiliation  of  our  hu- 
manity. 

Victory  for  God  and  overthrow  of  the  devil 
is  certified  at  the  SECOND  COMING  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

The  Second  Coining  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  \ 
is  bound  up  with  the  promise  that  creation  shall 
be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption. 

When  man  sinned  and  fell  from  his  exalted 
plane,  God  put  a  ban,  a  curse  and  limitation  on 
the  earth.  He  said  it  should  be  checked  on  the 
side  of  its  fruitfulness  in  worthful  seeds:  but 
that  it  should  bring  forth  the  hindering  and 
sterilizing  thorns  and  thistles. 

And  God  has  kept  His  Word  and  held  the 
ban. 

Go  into  that  field,  subsoil  it  deeply  with  your 
modern  plough ;  then  plant  it  well  with  best  of 
seeds;  and  lo,  weeds  and  thorns  shall  spring  up 
to  choke  and  keep  them  down.  Plant  a  garden, 
and  unless  with  tireless  vigil  you  watch  both 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  109 

night  and  day,  root  out  and  overturn  with  merci- 
less stroke  of  hoe  and  spade  the  multiplying 
thorns  and  creeping,  worthless  vines,  they  will 
so  grow,  invade  and  insist  their  rights  upon  the 
elect  and  chosen  ground,  that  almost  before  you 
are  aware  of  it,  they  will,  like  lustful  villains 
and  brutal  robbers,  be  strangling  and  robbing 
the  honest  plants  of  life  and  fruitful  gain. 

Everywhere  it  is  so.  You  must  sweat  and  toil 
and  labor  on  to  bring  forth  your  harvest;  but, 
you  need  never  turn  a  hand's  breadth  to  help  the 
weeds  and  thorns  and  worthless  multiplying 
things ;  leave  them  alone,  ignore  them,  let  wind 
and  rain  and  storm,  the  wind  and  rain  and  storm 
that  devastate  and  ruin  your  blooming  flowers 
and  precious  growths,  let  them  alone,  and  they 
will  grow  and  thrive  and  riot  in  a  perfect  de- 
bauch of  rank  increase,  running  over  stoniest  and 
most  repelling  ground  to  show  their  strength, 
reach  out  and'spoil  all  not  of  their  kind. 

To  poisonous  weeds  and  evil  things  there  is  no 
apparent  limit,  no  needed  care  to  make  them 
bloom;  but  always  and  everywhere  and  in  all 
things  there  is  limitation  and  hindrance  when 


I  lo  xHE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

you  seek  to  expand  and  make  more  fruitful  that 
which  is  good. 

There  is  limitation  in  the  earth.  There  is  a 
ban  upon  it,  sterile  wastes,  barren  deserts  and  re- 
sisting rocks. 

Because  of  this  limitation  and  hindrances  hu- 
man life  is  a  struggle;  a  struggle  which  begins 
at  birth  and  manifests  itself  in  the  very  hour  and 
article  of  death. 

Everywhere  under  this  ban  and  curse  of  thorn 
and  thistle  and  the  iron  bond  of  hindered  good, 
there  is  corruption  and  the  helpless  bondage  of 
it.  Everywhere  there  is  the  disintegration,  the 
moaning  and  the  lamentation;  everywhere  there 
is,  as  the  apostle  calls  it,  "The  sufferings  of  this 
now  time." 

That  the  earth  is  capable  of  a  million  fold 
greater  yield  of  bounty  is  demonstrated  every  day 
as  science  slowly  applies  its  increasing  knowl- 
edge, and  here  and  there  lays  hold  of  some 
hitherto  unknown  and  operating  force;  but  no 
matter  in  what  direction  the  push,  always  there 
is  the  interfering  force  and  hindrance. 

That  man  is  capable,  has  in  him  mentally,  as- 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1 1 1 

sets  of  power  for  greater  things,  is  demonstrated 
not  only  by  the  things  he  does,  but  by  the  things 
he  attempts  to  do  and  cannot. 

But  this  ban  is  to  be  taken  off.  This  imposed 
curse  is  to  be  removed.  The  earth  is  to  be  loos- 
ened from  her  gyves.  She  is  to  bound  forward 
as  a  fruitful  mother  and  from  her  quivering 
bosom  bring  forth  in  such  abundance  that  the 
very  desert  shall  blossom  as  the  rose. 

It  will  only  be  necessary  to  touch  the  earth  and 
waters  will  spring  forth  from  the  wilderness, 
fruit  from  the  naked  bough.  Famine  and  hun- 
ger, weariness  and  the  sweat  of  toiling  men  shall 
come  to  an  end.  Pain  and  disease  shall  depart. 
Sorrow  shall  cease  to  brew  its  tears.  The  in- 
habitants of  the  land  shall  no  more  say,  'T  am 
sick." 

And  the  earth,  creation  itself,  we  are  told,  is 
on  the  tiptoe  of  expectation  waiting  for  this 
promised  deliverance. 

And  when  shall  it  come? 

Neither  the  genius,  the  science,  nor  the  in- 
creasing knowledge  of  man  can  bring  it  about. 

It  is  to  be  brought  about  at  the  "manifestation 


112  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

of  the  sons  of  God;"  for,  as  it  is  literally  writ- 
ten: 

"The  creation  is  on  the  tiptoe  of  expectation 
waiting  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God 
.  .  .  the  creation  itself  shall  be  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  liberty  of  the 
glory  of  the  sons  of  God." 

And  when  shall  the  sons  of  God  be  manifested 
so  that  their  manifestation  shall  be  the  signal 
for  the  loosening  of  creation's  bond  and  bond- 
age? 

The  answer  is,  and  should  be  self  evident,  at 
the  SECOND  COMING  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ; 
as  it  is  written: 

"When  Christ  who  is  our  life*  shall  be  mani- 
fested, then  shall  ye  also  be  manifested  with 
him  in  glory." 

N^ot  only  is  the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  hound  up  with  every  fundamental 
doctrine  and  sublime  promise,  it  is,  also,  hound 
up  with  every  practical  exhortation  to  Christian 
obligation,  service  and  character. 

It  is  bound  up  with  the  exhortation  to  meet 
together  on  the  Lord's  Day. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1 13 

The  apostle  exhorts  believers  not  to  forsake 
the  assembling  of  themselves  together,  "as  the 
manner,"  he  says  of  some  is. 

It  was  the  manner  of  some  in  the  apostle's 
day.  Absenteeism  had  begun  in  the  apostolic 
Church.  It  is  a  widespread  contagion  today. 
There  are  said  to  be  a  million  Protestants  in 
this  city  who  rarely,  if  ever,  attend  church. 
Multitudes  of  professed  Christians  remain  in 
bed  on  Lord's  Day  morning;  or,  spend  the  fore- 
noon reading  the  Sunday  newspapers;  in  the 
afternoon  go  out  on  the  plea  of  health  and  recre- 
ation to  play  golf  or  drive  in  automobile;  or, 
taking  time  ofif  of  God  turn  the  day  which  is  the 
Lord's  and  not  theirs  into  a  day  of  visitation, 
family  reunion  or  social  pleasures.  It  is  a  holi- 
day, no  longer  what  the  word  originally  meant, 
a  ''holy  day." 

Some  of  the  reasons  Christians  give  for  stay- 
ing home  or  away  from  church  on  "Sunday"  are 
so  amazing,  that  the  insincerity  and  folly  of  them 
are  openly  manifest,  even  to  those  who  half 
shamefacedly  make  them. 

So  marked  has  become  this  deterioration  in  re- 


1 14  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

spect  to  the  Lord's  Day  and  the  house  of  God, 
that  a  "go  to  church"  campaign  has  been  in- 
augurated, even,  by  the  daily  papers.  Some  of 
the  reasons  suggested  why  people  should  go  to 
church  are  fairly  good,  others  grotesque.  Many, 
if  not  most  of  them  are  written  by  persons  who 
are  "religious"  rather  than  spiritual.  The  Chris- 
tian who  goes  to  church  conscientiously,  even 
though  he  should  sleep  through  the  service, 
nevertheless,  by  his  presence  testifies  his  faith  in 
an  empty  tomb  and  the  throne  of  God  filled  by 
a  man  who  rose  from  that  tomb. 

But  the  motive  by  which  the  apostle  appeals 
to  Christians  not  to  forsake  the  assembling  of 
themselves  together  on  the  Lord's  Day  is  the 
fact  that  our  Lord  is  coming  a  SECOND  time. 
He  says: 

"Not  forsaking  the  assembling  of  ourselves 
together,  as  the  manner  of  some  is;  but  exhort- 
ing one  another;  and  so  much  the  more  as  ye  see 
the  day  approaching  .  .  .  for  yet  a  little  while, 
and  he  that  shall  come  will  come,  and  will  not 
tarry." 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 


THt:  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1 1^ 

is    bound    up    with    the    exhortation    to   Break\ 
Bread,  to  eat  the  Lordj__Supper. 

The  Breaking  of  Bread,  or  the  Lord's  Supper, 
is  intended  to  memorialize  the  Lord's  death. 

The  bread  is  the  symbol  of  Flis  crucified 
body. 

The  wine  is  the  blood  poured  forth  as  the  seal 
of  the  covenant. 

The  ordinance  is  intended  to  teach  that  the 
blood  of  sacrifice  is  the  only  ground  of  approach 
to  a  holy  God;  that  the  death  of  Christ  is  a  sac- 
rifice for  sin  (not  the  death  of  a  martyr,  not 
the  death  of  one  who  came  too  far  ahead  of  his 
time  and  was  "torn  in  pieces  by  the  whirling 
wheel  of  the  world's  evil")  ;  that  His  body  was 
given  to  bear  the  judgment  due  to  our  sins;  that 
Hi?  blood  is  a  witness  He  has  by  and  through 
His  death  met  and  answered  all  the  claims  of 
divine  righteousness  against  the  chief  of  sinners. 

The  Lord's  Supper  is  a  memorial  picture  of 
the  scene  outside  the  gates  of  Jerusalem,  of  that 
sacrificially  stained  cross  whereon  He  died  for 
us;  and  when  we  gather  at  the  table  we  may 
well  by  faith  suddenly  see  Him  hanging  there. 


1 1 6  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

turning  His  blood-staEned  face  towards  us,  look- 
ing at  each  one  of  us  and  saying  in.  voice  that 
should'  penetrate  to  the  very  depth  and  core  of 
our  souls:  "I  am  dying  here  and  giving  my  life 
a  ransom  for  thee!  What  art  thou  ready  to  sac- 
rifice and  give  to  me?" 

This  ordinance  is  to  be  celebrated;  so  it  is 
written : 

"Till  he  come." 

Hear  what  the  apostle  says: 

"Ye  do  shew  the  Lord's  death  till  He 

COME." 

The  horizon  of  the  Lord's  Table  then  is — 
The  SECOND  COMING. 

Seated  at  that  table  on  the  Lord's  Day  (the 
day  of  resurrection)  we  are  on  resurrection 
ground,  judgment  behind  us,  glory  before  us. 

Behind  us  the  cross  where  we  were  judged  in 
the  suffering  and  death  of  our  substitute;  be- 
fore us  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  and  the  glory 
and  immortality  He  will  bring  us. 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  i 
is  bound  up  with  the  exhortation  to  love  God. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1 1?      ' 

"The  Lord  direct  your  hearts  into  the  love  of 
God,  and  into  the  patient  wjiitin^  for  Christ." 

Is  there  anything  more  practical  than  the  ex- 
hortation to  love  God?  And  here  it  is  bound  up 
with  and  identified  with  the  attitude  of  waiting 
for  Christ. 

On  the  margin  it  is  written,  "the  patience  of 
Christ;"  but  the  patience  of  Christ  is  that  pa- 
tience He  exercises  because  of  the  exhortation  of 
His  Father  who  when  He  received  Him  into 
heaven  and  bade  Him  sit  upon  the  throne,  said 
unto  Him,  "Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand,  until  I 
make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool."  He  tells 
Him  that  the  rod  or  sceptre  of  His  power  shall 
be  extended  from  Zion,  that  He  shall  rule  in  the 
midst  of  His  enemies,  and  that  His  people  (the 
Jews)  shall  be  willing  in  the  Jay  of  His  power. 
(Psalm  no.) 

This  is  the  patience  of  Christ,  and  when  the 
apostle  prays  the  Lord  may  direct  our  hearts 
into  the  love  of  God  and  the  patience  of  Christ, 
he  is  praying  that  while  our  hearts  flow  out  in 
love  and  praise  to  God  the  Father  we  are  to  be 
full  of  the  patience  of  Christ,  and  with  Him 


1 18  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

wait  in  confidence  and  peace  for  the  hour  of  His 
return. 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  hound  up  with  the  exhortation  to  love  one  an- 
other. 

"The  Lord  make  you  to  increase  and  abound 

s  M\x,\i  in  love  toward  one  another  ...  to  the  end  he 

may  establish  your  hearts  unblameable  before 

God,  even  our  Father,   at  the  Coming  of  our 

Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  his  saints." 

We  are  to  love  one  another  as  Christians. 

It  was  the  love  of  Christians  for  each  other, 
their  desire  to  help  and  bless  each  other  which 
drew  the  attention  of  the  world  to  the  early 
Church.  They  said,  "See,  how  these  Christians 
love  one  another." 

And  we  are  exhorted  to  keep  this  flame  of 
mutual  love  and  helpfulness  burning  because  the 
Lord  is  coming. 

Surely  if  He  came  and  found  a  lack  of  love 
and  Christian  sympathy  in  the  Church  it  would 
be  an  unhappy  revelation  and  would  afifect  such 
a  Church  and  such  Christians  as  they  should 
stand  before  His  judgment  seat. 


\  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1 19 

\ 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
IS  bound  up  with  the  exhortation  to  patience. 

"Be  patient  brethren  unto  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  .  .  .  Be  ye  also  patient,  stablish  your  heart: 
for  the  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh," 

This  is  an  exhortation  to  patience  in  the  midst 
of  lift's  trials  and  perplexities.  The  trials  and 
perplexities  are  great;  but  all  problems  will  be 
solved  when  the  Lord  comes.  The  apostle  does 
not  say  they  will  be  solved  when  we  die  and  go 
to  heaven  aKd  thus  bid  us  to  hold  on  and  endure 
till  such  a  surnmons  comes;  nay!  he  bids  us  to 
be  patient  not  oily  because  the  Lord  is  coming, 
but  because  the  <loming  of  the  Lord  draweth 
nigh. 

The  Second  Comity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  bound  up  with  the  exhortation  to  a  holy  life. 

He  who  imagines  it  i^ permitted  him  to  pro- 
fess faith  in  Christ  and  then  live  a  careless,  god- 
less life,  greatly  deceives  hin^elf. 

By  faith  we  come  into  un^n  with  a  once 
crucified,  but  now  risen  and  liv'ng  Christ;  and 
if  this  faith  be  genuine;  if  it  be  soi^ething  more 
than  idle  words  upon  a  thoughtless  tongue;    if 


j/^ 


s   £'■ 


I  20  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

the  confession  of  our  lips  be  the  expression  of 
our  heart,  the  conviction  and  seal  of  the  Spirit, 
then  there  must  needs  be,  "the  things  which  ac- 
company salvation;  "there  must  be  a  hear.y 
turning  away  from  the  old  life,  the  old  char- 
acter, bringing  forth  of  fruit  meet  for  rerent- 
ance,  and  the  daily  demonstration  of  a  life  that 
shall  demonstrate,  not  only  that  the  Son  jf  God 
is  on  His  Father's  throne  in  heaven,  bu.'  that  He 
is  as  to  life  and  nature,  enthroned  in  'hat  Chris- 
tian, is  in  him  the  radiant  and  inspinng  hope  of 
glory. 

The  endeavor  to  live  this  life  finds  its  appeal 
in  the  fact  and  doctrine  of  o^r  Lord's  SECOND 
Coming;   as  it  is  written: 

"And  I  pray  God  your  vhole  spirit,  and  soul 
£5sff.j.iand  body  he  preserved  bUmeless  unto  the  Com- 
ing of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ/^ 

The  Second  CominJ  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christi 
is  bound  up  with  /A<?  exhortation  to  moderation.  | 

"Let  your  moderation  be  known  to  all  men." 

The  word,  "moderation,"  is  "mildness,"  and 
really  means  "gentleness." 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  while  true  Son  was 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1 2 1 

real  man ;  as  a  real  man  He  was  in  essence  and 
character — a  gentleman.  He  was  full  of  com- 
passion and  gracious  sympathy.  He  moved 
among  men  as  quietly  as  the  sunlight  falls  upon 
the  earth;  like  the  sunlight,  He  revealed  the 
stain,  but  took  no  spot  upon  Himself.  He  spoke 
with  authority,  but  His  voice  was  modulated  and 
His  speech  exact.  When  He  bade  the  storm  be 
hushed  on  Galilee,  it  was  as  when  a  mother  softly 
bids  her  babe  be  still,  and  fret  no  more.  Master- 
fulness and  power  were  His,  but  gentleness  so 
great  that  children  rested  peacefully  on  His 
breast.  It  is  never  said  He  laughed,  and  there  is 
no  record  that  He  smiled  (how  could  He  when 
He  knew  the  woe  of  men) ,  but  in  His  mien  there 
was  the  calm  of  an  unruffled  soul,  and  the  dig- 
nity and  refinement  of  a  life  whose  every  thought 
and  word  and  deed  was  the  mode  of  holiness  and 
love.  The  keenest  invective  He  spoke  had  in  it 
none  of  the  vituperation  of  men  of  coarse  and 
noisy  mould,  but  the  clear  and  trumpet-sound  of 
unapologetic  truth. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  inspired  and  moved  and 
fashioned  by  the  risen  Son  of  God  was  a  pol- 


4-.5- 


122  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

ished  soul,  a  courteous  gentleman.  Writing  to 
the  Thessalonians  he  says: 

"We  were  gentle  among  you,  even  as  a  nurse 
cherisheth  her  children." 

Watch  him  in  his  attitude  before  kings  and 
governors,  the  women  gathered  by  the  seashore 
or  the  trembling  jailer  at  his  feet.  He  it  is  who 
under  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit  exhorts  us  to 
let  our  moderation,  our  gentleness  be  known. 

The  Christianity  that  does  not  make  a  man 
in  all  his  speech  and  ways  a  gentleman  and  a 
woman  in  all  her  attitude  and  words  a  gentle- 
woman, is  not  the  Christianity  of  a  Paul  nor  the 
inspiration  of  the  Son  of  God. 

And  this  apostolic  exhortation  to  mildness,  to 
moderation  and  gentleness  is  made  in  view  of, 
and  by  an  appeal  to  the  fact  of,  the  SECOND 
Coming  of  our  Lord;    as  it  is  written: 

"Let  your  moderation  be  known  to  all  men. 
The  Lord  is  at  hand." 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  hound  up  ivith  the  exhortation  to  watch- 
fulness. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  ^  ^3 

It  is  the  Son  of  God  Himself  who  gives  the 
exhortation.    He  says : 

"And  what  I  say  unto  you,  I  say  unto  all,  ^^  ,3:^- 
watch." 

And  He  says  it  because  of  His  antecedent 
warning  to  them,  that  although  He  is  going 
away  like  the  householder  into  a  far  country, 
into  heaven,  like  that  householder  He  will  come 
back,  and  in  an  uncertain  hour;  an  hour  so  un- 
certain that  they  must  needs  watch — "lest,"  as 
He  says,  "coming  suddenly,  he  find  you  sleep- 
ing." 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  hound  up  with  the  exhortation  to  Christian 
activity. 

"It  js  high  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep;  for 
now  is  our  salvation  nearer  (that  is,  the  coming 
of  the  Lord  to  save  our  bodies — raise  the  dead 
and  change  the  living)  than  when  we  believed. 

"The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand 

(and  therefore  His  coming  for  us;    it  is  His 

1--    1.    •  J  11X1  1  f.o^-\v,\ 

commg  which  mtroduces  the  day)  let  us  there- 
fore cast  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and  let  us  put 
on  the  armour  of  light." 


124  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

This  dispensation  is  going,  another  is  coming 
— the  Day  of  Christ,  the  day  of  right  and  truth 
and  divine  triumph.  That  day  will  begin  by  the 
Coming  of  the  Lord  for  His  Church,  coming  in 
the  night.  He  is  coming  as  a  thief.  It  will  not 
do  for  us  as  Christians  to  be  asleep.  We  must 
keep  awake.  We  must  be  on  the  alert;  not  only 
wearing  His  name,  but  acting  in  His  name. 
Could  you  find  any  stronger  or  more  practical 
exhortation  than  this?  Awaking,  putting  off  the 
night  clothes,  putting  on  the  day  clothes,  putting 
on  armour,  living  as  though  we  were  already  in 
the  day  of  Christ;  and  this  appeal  made  by  the 
fact  and  imniinency  of  His  Coming? 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  bound  up  with   the  exhortation  to  abide  in] 
Him. 

"And  now  little  children,  abide  in  Him;  that, 
when  He  shall  appear,  we  may  have  confidence, 
and  not  be  ashamed  before  Him  at  His  Com- 
ing." 

Nothing  could  be  more  shameful  than  to  pro- 
fess His  name,  stand  for  the  faith  and  then  be 
filled  with  doubt,  with  uncertainty;  now  true  to 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  125 

Him,  now  false,  now  exalting  His  name,  now 
allowing  it  to  trail  in  the  dust;  shouting  halle- 
lujahs and  full  of  coronation  songs,  then  falling 
away,  holding  empty  hands  as  we  walk  with 
stumbling  feet  and  making  ourselves  stumbling- 
blocks  to  others. 

That  is  shameful  here,  and  should  the  Lord 
come  while  we  are  in  that  state,  we  would  be 
put  to  shame  when  we  should  be  gathered  up  and 
called  to  stand  at  the  judgment  seat. 

And  this  is  not  a  far  off  contingency  is  it? 

No,  says  the  apostle.  He  is  coming.  He 
might  come  any  time.  That  is  his  meaning. 
Arouse  then,  take  your  place  as  a  Christian  and 
abide,  be  no  more  like  the  waves  of  the  sea  driven 
and  tossed. 

No  exhortation  could  be  more  practical  or 
more  insistent;  and  it  is  an  exhortation  which 
grows  out  of  the  apostle's  belief  that  the  Lord  is 
Coming,  and  may  come  while  we  live. 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  bound  up  with  the  exhortation  not  to  judge  onei 
another. 


126  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

"Therefore  judge  nothing  before  the  time,  un- 
til the  Lord  Come." 

Should  the  Lord  come  tonight  the  judgment 
seat  would  be  immediately  set  up.  As  Chris- 
tians we  should  have  to  stand  there  and  answer, 
not  for  our  lives,  but  for  our  work  as  Christians. 
It  is  sorely  out  of  place  for  those  who  will  have 
to  answer  to  a  common  master  to  judge  those 
who  will  have  to  answer  to  that  master  also. 
It  is  not  worth  while  to  be  engaged  in  judging 
one  another  now.  All  things  will  be  brought 
out  and  the  truth  declared.  "The  hidden 
things"  of  darkness  will  be  declared.  Every  one 
shall  get  the  praise  that  is  his  due.  There  will 
be  a  perfect  adjustment.  The  highest  plane  of 
judgment  now  is  to  judge  ourselves.  If  we  judge 
ourselves  we  shall  not  have  much  leisure  to 
judge  others.  When  we  stand  at  the  judgment 
seat  of  Christ  we  shall  find  little  occasion  to 
plead  against  others.  It  will  take  all  our  time  to 
plead  in  our  own  behalf. 

It  is  written,  each  one  of  us  shall  "give  an  ac- 
count of  himself  to  God;"  and  this  God  shall  be 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ- 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  127 

By  the  SECOND  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  then  the  apostle  urges  us  not  to  judge  one 
another. 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  hound  uP  with  the  exhortation  to  pastoral 
fidelity. 

What  the  Church  needs  today,  what  the 
Christian  in  the  Church  needs  above  all  other 
things,  is  to  be  spiritually  fed.  The  new  spirit- 
ual nature  cannot  feed  on  the  things  which 
pertain  to  the  flesh.  Sheep  cannot  feed  on  that 
which  is  satisfactory  to  swine.  To  offer  to  spir- 
itual men  and  women  the  food  that  fills  the 
worldling  would  be  to  offer  a  stone  for  bread,  a 
scorpion  for  a  fish.  The  spiritual  nature  can  be 
sustained  only  by  the  Word  of  God.  It  is  to  be 
nourished  up  in  "the  words  of  faith  and  good 
doctrine."  A  growing  Christian  must  feed  on 
the  "milk"  of  the  Word,  and  the  "strong  meat" 
of  doctrine.  *  He  must  be  able  to  say  with  the 
prophet,  "Thy  words  were  found,  and  I  did  eat 
them;  and  thy  word  was  unto  me  the  joy  and 
rejoicing  of  mine  heart:  for  I  am  called  by  thy 
name,  O  Lord  God  of  hosts." 


128  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CPIRIST 

Christians  are  not  being  fed  today.  They  are 
not  being  fed  because  they  are  not  taught;  and 
only  by  teaching  can  the  spiritual  mind  be  fed 
and  sustained.  The  weakness  of  the  Church  is 
the  multitude  of  preachers.  It  is  full  of  preach- 
ers, but  not  teachers.  The  people  get  sermons, 
essays  and  certain  lines  of  homilies.  They  need 
exposition,  an  expose  of  Scripture.  The  Scrip- 
ture opened  and  exposed  to  their  gaze.  They 
need  more  than  that.  They  need  the  teacher 
who  will  "rightly  divide  the  word  of  truth." 

Eating  of  food  for  proper  assimilation  needs 
right  division  of  food.  You  cannot  give  the 
same  diet  to  all.  There  are  certain  classes  of 
food  which  belong  to  certain  classes  of  persons. 
Just  so,  there  are  certain  classes  of  persons  indi- 
cated by  Scripture  and  certain  classes  of  food 
for  those  persons.  The  Word  of  God  divides 
all  mankind  into  "Jew,  Gentile  and  the  Church 
of  God."  There  are  some  things  in  the  book 
which  belong  exclusively  to  the  Jew,  some  to 
the  Gentile,  and  some  to  the  Church.  You  can- 
not give  the  food  which  belongs  to  the  Jew  to 
the  Christian.    The  promises  made  to  the  Church 


THiE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1 29 

do  not  belong  to  the  Jew.  The  teacher,  the  true 
teacher,  must  give  to  each  the  food  that  belongs 
to  each  and  in  due  season;  the  men  who  have 
been  called  to  shepherd  a  church,  to  deal  with 
an  assembly  of  Christ  as  with  a  flock  of  hungry 
sheep,  are  exhorted  to  feed  such  a-  flock;  and 
they  are  exhorted  to  do  so  faithfully  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  when  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
Himself  shall  come  as  the  great,  the  chief,  shep- 
herd of  the  flock  He  will  reward  all  such  faith- 
ful teachers  (not  preachers),  all  such  faithful 
teachers  with  an  amaranthine,  that  is  to  say,  a 
fadeless,  crown;   as  it  is  written: 

"Feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is  among  you 
.    .    .    and  when  the  chief  shepherd    (pastor)  x  p^t-^"." 2. 
shall  appear,  ye  shall  receive  a  crown  of  glory 
that  fadeth  not  away." 

Thus  it  is  manifest  that  pastors  are  exhorted 
to  be  faithful  teachers  of  the  flocks,  and  are  so 
exhorted  by  the  thought  of  the  SECOND  Coming 
of  our  Lord. 

The  Second  Coming  of  Christ  is  bound  up 
with  the  exhortation  to  faithfulness  in  preach- 
ing. 


130  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

It  is  true  the  minister  of  Christ  is  to  preach. 
He  is  to  proclaim,  but  always  his  proclamation 
must  be  based  on  doctrines.  He  is  to  exhort,  he 
is  to  rebuke,  he  is  to  reprove;  but,  always  he  is 
to  do  this  with  unfailing  note  of  doctrine. 

The  apostle  warns  that  the  time  would  come 
when  the  Church  would  not  endure  sound  doc- 
trines. The  time  would  come  when  with  itching 
ears  the  Church  would  seek  teachers  who  should 
respond  to  their  demands,  teachers  who  should 
give  them  the  fables  and  the  fictions  of  human 
imagination  and  turn  them  away  from  the  truth. 

That  time  is  on  us  now  both  in  the  pulpit  and 
the  pew.  The  people  in  the  pew,  as  a  rule,  do 
not  want  doctrine.  They  do  not  want  sound  doc- 
trine. They  do  not  want  the  old  faith  once  for 
all  delivered.  They  are  willing  to  listen  to 
the  modification  of  God's  Word  and  the  break- 
ing down  of  the  old  standards.  There  are  men 
in  the  pulpits  who  are  responding  to  the  de- 
mand. They  reject  the  doctrine  of  fiat  creation, 
the  fall  of  man,  the  virgin  birth,  the  atonement 
by  blood,  the  bodily  resurrection  of  Christ,  His 
Second  Coming.     They  set  aside  the  idea  of  an 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  ^31 

inerrant,  infallible  Bible  fully  and  entirely  in- 
spired of  God,  and  set  up  a  Christ  between 
Bethlehem  and  Calvar)^;  a  Christ  of  exclusive 
humanity,  or  exclusively  of  humanity;  and  set 
Flim  up  not  as  a  redeemer  and  regenerator  of 
men,  but  as  an  example  to  draw  out  of  men  the 
sonship  with  God  claimed  to  be  already  inher- 
ing in  them.  They  preach,  not  redemption  by 
blood,  but  salvation  by  character. 

There  never  was  a  time  when  the  Christian 
minister  needed  more  to  be  faithful  than  now, 
needed  more  to  have  the  wisdom  as  well  as  the 
knowledge  of  God,  to  be  led  by  the  Divine 
Spirit;  and  never  more  did  he  need  to  speak 
the  whole  counsel  of  God,  hew  to  the  line  and 
fear  not. 

The  apostle  appeals  to  the  Christian  minister 
in  this  hour  to  be  faithful.  In  proportion  as  the 
Church  refuses  doctrine,  let  him  give  it.  In 
proportion  as  it  seeks  darkness  let  him  pour  on 
the  light  of  truth;  and  the  apostle  appeals  to 
this  faithfulness  by  appealing  to,  and  exhorting 
by,  the  SECOND  Coming  of  the  Lord. 


132  TP/E  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Hear  what  he  says.  According  to  the  literal 
rendering  of  the  passage  he  says: 

"I  charge  thee  therefore  before  God,  and  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead  at  his  appearing  (and  by  his  ap- 
pearing) and  his  kingdom; 

Preach  the  Word  :  be  instant  in  season,  out  of 
season;  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort,  with  all  long 
suffering  and  doctrine." 

The  SECOND  Coming  of  Christ  is  the  basis  on 
which  the  apostle  bids  the  Christian  minister  to 
preach,  and  so  preach  that  he  may  sustain  the 
sound  doctrine  committed  to  his  charge. 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  bound  up  with  the  exhortation  to  comfort  and 
console  those  who  mourn  their  Christian  dead. 

It  is  true,  blessedly  true,  that  should  we  die, 
we  as  Christians,  "depart  to  be  with  Christ;" 
and  it  is  a  state  advanced  upon  this,  better  and 
"far  better."  It  is  true,  consolingly  true,  that 
should  we  die  we  shall  be  "absent  from  our  home 
in  this  body  and  present  at  our  home  with  the 
Lord;"  and  just  as  surely  as  Saul  recognized 
Samuel  in  his  disembodied  state^  and  Abraham 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  133 

recognized  the  rich  man  though  both  had  died 
and  their  bodies  been  buried,  just  that  sure  is  it, 
should  the  Lord  bid  us  to  ascend  to  Heaven 
through  death  before  He  comes,  that  we  shall 
see  and  know  each  other;  yet  the  apostle  does 
not  seek  to  comfort  the  sorrowing  concerning 
the  dead  in  Christ  by  any  such  appeal  as  that. 
On  the  contrary,  he  offers  what  to  him  is  a 
quicker,  more  imminent  comfort,  the  comfort 
that  the  Lord  Himself  is  coming  from  heaven; 
and  just  as  he  called  Lazarus  from  the  grave  and 
gave  him  to  the  weeping  sisters  and  they  rejoiced 
in  a  reunion  that  triumphed  over  death  and  the 
grave;  so  will  He  descend,  it  may  be  any 
moment,  into  the  upper  air,  and  calling  the  dead 
from  their  graves  and  transfiguring  the  living, 
lift  them  up  as  in  clouds  that  are  chariots  to  meet 
Him  and  one  another,  and  forevermore  be  with 
Him  and  with  one  another. 

Hear  how  the  inspired  apostle  comforts 
Christians  who  sorrow  above  their  Christian 
dead: 

*'I  would  not  have  you  to  be  ignorant,  breth^ 


134  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

ren,  concerning  them  which  are  asleep,  that  ye 
sorrow  not,  even  as  others  which  have  no  hope. 

"For  if  we  believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose 
again,  even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus 
(whom  Jesus  has  put  to  sleep)  will  God  bring 
with  him. 

"For  this  we  say  unto  you  by  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  that  we  which  are  alive,  and  remain  unto 
the  coming  of  the  Lord,  shall  not  prevent  (go 
before)  them  which  are  asleep. 

"For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from 
heaven  with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  arch- 
angel and  the  trump  of  God :  and  the  dead  in 
Christ  shall  rise  first: 

"Then  we  which  are  alive  and  remain,  shall 
be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  clouds,  to 
meet  the  Lord  in  the  air :  and  so  shall  we  ever  be 
with  the  Lord 

"Wherefore  comfort  one  another  with  these 


words. 


Thus  have  I  demonstrated  and  proved  what 
I  have  affirmed;  that  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  is  bound  up  with  every  funda- 
mental doctrine,  every  sublime  promise,  every 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  135 

radiant  hope,  every  practical  exhortation,  and 
affords  the  basis  of  apostolic  appeal  in  behalf  of 
the  highest  type  of  every  day  Christian  living 
and  devotion. 

Repudiate  the  Second  Coming  and  you  take 
away  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  in  Christ,  the 
hoped  for  transfiguration  of  the  living,  the  mani- 
fested sonship  with  God  and  likeness  to  Christ, 
the  assurance  of  reward,  the  promised  satisfac- 
tion of  the  soul,  the  victory  over  Satan  and  the 
deliverance  of  this  earth  from  the  bondage  of 
corruption. 

Take  out  the  Second  Coming  and  you  take  out 
of  the  New  Testament  the  appeal  to  meet  to- 
gether on  the  Lord's  Day,  the  appeal  to  meet 
around  the  Lord's  Table  and  break  bread,  the 
appeal  to  love  God,  to  love  one  another,  to  pa- 
tience, to  a  holy  life,  to  watchfulness,  to  Chris- 
tian activity,  to  moderation,  to  abiding  in  Christ, 
the  warning  against  judging  one  another  as 
Christians,  the  appeal  to  steadfastness,  to  pas- 
toral fidelity,  to  faithfulness  in  preaching,  and 
the  inspired  words  of  comfort  with  which  we 


136  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

are  to  comfort  one  another  above  the  Christian 
dead. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Second  Coming  unimpor- 
tant! 

Unimportant,  when  it  is  inwrought  with  doc- 
trines without  which  Christianity  would  be  as  a 
half-naked  and  pitiable  beggar  asking  for  alms, 
even  the  indififerent  consideration  of  a  careless 
world. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Second  Coming  not  prac- 
tical! 

Not  practical,  when  it  is  the  very  basis  on 
which,  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost  the 
apostles  appeal  to  all  that  can  make  Christianity 
a  living,  a  fruitful  and  helpful  profession  among 
the  sons  of  men. 

Certainly,  those  who  repudiate  the  Second 
Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  are  excuse- 
lessly  ignorant  of  the  Word  of  God,  wilfully 
prejudiced,  or  brutally  unbelieving  and  infidelic. 
Those  who  are  ignorant  of  the  Word  have  no 
right  to  speak  about  it,  those  who  are  prejudiced 
are  unqualified,  and  those  who  are  infidelic 
ought  to  have  no  place  in  the  Church  of  Christ. 


tHE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  I37 

It  must  be  evident,  and  in  the  very  nature  of 
the  case,  that  the  promises  and  appeals  coinci- 
dent with  the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  require  there  should  be,  and  so  demon- 
strate there  is,  a  stage  or  part  of  the  coming  in 
relation  to  the  Church  which  makes  it  imminent. 

What  folly,  what  utter  waste  of  words,  what 
altogether  meaninglessness,  not  to  say  stupidity, 
in  exhorting  me,  a  living  man,  to  be  patient  unto 
the  Coming  of  the  Lord,  if  the  Lord  cannot 
come  for,  at  least,  a  thousand  years,  and  on  the 
theory  the  world  is  to  be  converted  by  the  Gos- 
pel, for  several  thousand  years.  What  an  insult 
to  intelligence,  what  a  shock  to  faith,  what  an 
appeal  to  unbelief  in  the  whole  thing  to  add, 
"The  coming  of  the  Lord  draweth  nigh;"  and 
then  to  give  it  still  greater  emphasis,  to  say,  "The 
Judge  standeth  before  the  door."  Tell  me  the 
Lord's  Coming  is  so  nigh,  that  already  He  is 
on  the  eve  of  summoning  me  with  the  Church  to 
His  judgment  seat;  and  then  for  me  to  discover 
that  by  no  possibility  could  He  come  while  I  am 
alive!    What  would  that  be  but  a  striking,  an  in- 


I3'8  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

disputable  proof  that  the  Scriptures  contradict 
themselves,  and  are  wholly  unreliable? 

If  the  Lord  will  not  come,  and  cannot  come 
while  I  am  alive,  how  utterly  grotesque,  worse 
even  than  that,  is  the  prayer  in  which  the  apos- 
tle prays  my  whole  spirit,  soul  and  body  shall 
be  preserved  blameless,  unto  the  Coming  of  the 
Lord. 

If  it  is  not  possible  for  me  to  live  till  the  Lord 
comes,  of  what  downright  deception  or  childish 
babbling  is  the  apostle  guilty  when  he  writes 
such  a  sentence  as  this: 

"We  who  are  alive  and  remain  unto  the  com- 
ing of  the  Lord." 

And  again: 

"We  shall  not  all  sleep  (that  is,  die),  but  we 
shall  all  be  changed;"  not  die,  but  live  till  the 
Lord  comes  and  transfigures  us  into  His  own 
likeness. 

If  the  Lord  may  not  come  any  moment  for 
the  Church,  of  what  trifling  verbiage  is  the 
apostle  guilty  when  he  commends  the  Thessa- 
lonians  because  they  have  turned  to  God  from 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  139 

idols  to  serve  the  living  and  the  true  God  and — 
to  wait  for  His  Son  from  lieaven? 

If  the  Lord  may  not  come  any  moment,  of 
what  possible  value  can  His  own  most  solemn 
exhortation  be? 

This  solemn  and  intense  exhortation: 

^'Watcli  therefore;  for  ye  know  not  what  hour 
your  Lord  doth  come." 

If  these  exhortations,  if  the  whole  trend  of 
these  appeals,  do  not  mean  imminency;  if  they 
do  not  mean  the  Lord  may  come  while  we  are 
alive,  in  some  unexpected  hour  or  moment,  and, 
therefore,  so  far  as  our  knowledge  is  concerned, 
any  moment,  then  the  New  Testament,  as  an  in- 
strument for  the  transmission  of  intelligent 
thought  must  be  set  aside. 

But  why  discuss  it!  The  language  is  clear, 
plain,  unmistakable.  You  must  accept  it,  or  re- 
ject the  book.  You  must  accept  the  words  of  the 
Lord  as  Hs  speaks  them  or  reject  Him  as  one 
who  does  not  speak  the  truth.  The  words  are  so 
simple,  so  direct,  without  the  slightest  sinuosity 
or  double  turning,  that  the  puzzling  word  "in- 
terpretation" cannot  come  in  to  misplace  or  at- 


140  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

'tempt  to  define  them.  There  they  are.  He  says 
I  am  coming.  Be  on  the  lookout  for  me,  watch 
for  me.  He  meant  that  or  He  did  not.  He  told 
the  actual  truth,  or  He  did  not.  There  is  no 
middle  ground.  You  must  take  them  or  reject 
them.  The  apostles  say,  "Wait."  They  meant  it 
just  as  the  Lord  meant  it.  They  were  as  honest 
as  He  was;  or,  both  were  dishonest. 

He  says  the  hour  is  unknown.  The  moment 
is  equally  unknown.  There  is  only  one  thing 
certain  about  it.  He  will  come,  not  only  when 
the  world  is  not  thinking  about  it,  but  when  the 
Church  is  not  thinking  about  it;  and  it  is  dead 
certain  the  Church  is  not  thinking  about  it  to- 
day. 

"Be  ye  also  ready." 

He  said  so. 

He  who  is  the  Son  of  God,  the  truth  and  no 
lie.  He  said  it. 

He  said  it  for  the  Church  that  should  be  after 
He  should  ascend  to  heaven. 

He  said  it  for  the  Church  in  any  and  every 
hour  after  He  had  ascended  to  heaven. 

"Be  ye  also  ready." 


THE  SF.COxND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  14 1' 

j 

It  would  be  amazing  foolery  to  attempt  to  ap- 
ply it  to  any  generation  but  a  present  generation. 

"Be  3/^  also  ready." 

It  means  we  are  always  on  the  threshold  of 
His  Coming. 

It  is  impossible  to  mean  anything  else. 

It  does  mean  that. 

It  means  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  imminent. 

Since  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is 
imminent,  it  ought  to  be  an  incentive  and  a  hope. 

It  should  be  an  incentive  to  the  highest  Chris- 
tian living. 

If  the  Lord  should  come  tomorrow  you  would 
not  wish  Him  to  find  you  doing  what  a  Christian 
ought  not  to  do ;  nor,  would  you  like  Him  to  find 
3^ou  where  a  Christian  ought  not  to  be. 

You  surely  would  wish  to  meet  Flim  with 
your  accounts  all  straight,  your  responsibilities 
discharged 'and  your  life  without  fault.  You 
would  not  wish  to  be  put  to  shame  at  His  Com- 
ing. 

Because  He  is  Coming,  and  because  our  place 
in  the  kingdom  will  depend  upon  the  character 


142  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

we  are  living  as  Christians;  then  the  "any 
moment"  Coming  of  the  Lord  should  be  an  in- 
centive to  the  noblest  type  of  Christian  living, 
Christian  service  and  devotion. 

Since  the  Coming  of  Christ  means  all  for 
vv^hich  our  hearts  are  yearning;  since  it  means 
the  fulfilment  of  our  redemption,  the  exaltation 
of  the  Church  into  the  place  of  rulership  and 
power,  and  the  transformation  of  the  world  into 
an  arena  for  God,  for  righteousness  and  peace, 
it  is  as  it  has  been  divinely  called: 

''The  Blessed  Hope." 

It  is  to  be  held,  not  merely  as  a  doctrine,  but 
as  a  hope;  and  we  are  told  that  he  that  hath  it 
as  a  hope  upon  the  Lord  will  purify  himself  even 
as  He  is  pure. 

If  the  Lord  is  Coming:  yea,  if  I  really  wish 
Him  to  come,  then  will  I  truly  seek,  and  invol- 
untarily, each  passing  moment  to  be  in  full  ac- 
cord with  Him. 

With  the  apostle,  therefore,  I  beseech  you 
brethren,  by  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  that  ye  be 
not  moved  away  from  the  hope  of  the  Gospel, 
"the  hope  of  glory;"    that  ye  let  no  time  be 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  HS 

wasted ;  that  ye  be  always  ready ;  for,  in  an  hour 
when  ye  think  not  He  may  come.  Already  the 
air  is  blowing  as  from  suddenly  opened  gates  in 
heaven;  already  the  sensitive  earth  is  shivering 
as  though  His  presence  were  drawing  nigh,  in- 
deed. If  He  should  come  this  night  He  would 
bid  you  stand  before  Flim,  and  at  once,  without 
delay,  give  an  account  for  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body,  for  the  life  you  have  professed  to  live  in 
His  name. 

Be  ready.  Christian,  for  you,  and  not  another, 
must  give  an  account  of  yourself  to  Him,  He 
who  is  none  other  than  our  great  God  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  true  He  will  bring 
to  light  every  hidden  thing  of  darkness  uncon- 
fessed;  but  it  is,  also,  blessedly  true  that  every 
Christian  shall  have  praise  of  Him  for  the 
slightest  thing  done  in  His  name;  neither  the 
cup  of  cold  water  given  nor  the  word  fitly  spoken 
will  be  forgot. 

Men  out  of  Christ! 

You  are  not  safe  a  moment  out  of  Christ. 

Get  into  Christ. 

He  is  your  only  shelter. 


M4  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

I  say  get  into  Christ;  and  you  can  get  into 
Him. 

You  can  get  into  Him  by  letting  Him  get  into 
you. 

He  will  enter  into  you  and  possess  you  if  you 
will  but  throw  your  soul  wide  open  by  faith 
n\  Him. 

The  exercise  of  that  faith  should  be  clear, 
simple,  direct  and  objective. 

Claim  Him  on  that  cross  as  the  sacrifice  for 
sin  provided  by  God  Himself.  Claim  Him  as 
your  personal  substitute.  Offer  Him  as  such  to 
God,  and  God  the  Father  will  accept  Him  on 
your  behalf.  In  a  moment  you  shall  be  deliv- 
ered from  the  penalty  of  sin.  You  will  be 
legally  justified.  You  will  be  safe,  as  safe  as 
the  children  of  Israel  under  the  sprinkled  blood 
of  the  Passover  night  in  Egypt.  The  moment 
you  believe  Christ  becomes  your  Passover.  Flis 
blood  meets  your  case  and  answers  all  demands 
of  divine  righteousness.  The  Risen  Christ  will 
impart  His  perfect  life;  and  thus,  redeemed, 
justified,  regenerated,  you  shall  belong  to  Him; 
and  were  He  to  come,  even  now,  this  minute, 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  145 

you,  the  sincere  believer,  would  be  in  Him,  Fie 
would  be  in  you;  and  by  grace,  through  faith 
you  would  be  forever  saved  and  glorified. 

Now  is  the  accepted  time.  Now  is  yours  and 
not  tomorrow. 

Tomorrow  may  not  be  grace.  Tomorrow  may 
be  judgment. 

Delay  not,  lose  no  time,  fly  to  the  shelter  of 
the  blood. 


Ill 

IS  THE  COMING  OF  CHRIST  BEFORE  OR 
AFTER  THE  MILLENNIUM? 


Is  the  Coming  of  Christ 
Before  or  After  the  Millennium  ? 


'ND  Enoch  also,  the  seventh  from  Adam, 
prophesied  of  these,  saying.  The  Lord 
Cometh  with  ten  thousands  of  his  saints." 
(Jude  14.) 

"And  I  saw  an  angel  come  down  from  heaven, 
having  the  key  of  the  bottomless  pit  and  a  great 
chain  in  his  hand. 

"And  he  laid  hold  on  the  dragon,  that  old  ser- 
pent, which  is  the  Devil,  and  Satan,  and  bound 
him  a  thousand  years, 

"And  cast  him  into  the  bottomless  pit,  and  shut 
him  up,  and  set  a  seal  upon  him,  that  he  should 
deceive  the  nations  no  more,  till  the  thousand 
years  should  be  fulfilled :  and  after  that  he  must 
be  loosed  a  little  season.  *  *  * 

"Blessed'and  holy  is  he  that  hath  part  in  the 
first  resurrection:  on  such  the  second  death  hath 
no  power,  but  they  shall  be  priests  of  God  and 
of  Christ,  and  shall  reign  with  him  a  thousand 
years."     (Revelation  20:  1-6.) 


150  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

The  ''thousand  years"  is  the  term  \Yhich  in 
Scripture  represents  that  golden  era  fortetold  by 
prophet,  priest  and  king,  when  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  shall 
set  up  His  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  peace 
and  reign  and  rule  in  undisturbed  authority 
among  the  sons  of  men. 

The  thousand  years  of  Scripture  are  com- 
monly known  by  the  word,  ''millennium."  This 
is  a  Latin  word  compounded  of  ml  lie,  a  thou- 
sand, and  annus,  a  year. 

The  doctrine  of  a  millennium  is  believed  in 
and  accepted  more  or  less  by  all  Christians. 

All  Christians  do  not  agree  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  to  be  introduced. 

There  are  those  who  believe  and  teach  that  as 
the  age  goes  on  the  Gospel  will  be  less  and  less 
successful,  the  Church  instead  of  overcoming  the 
world  will  be  overcome  by  the  world,  sin,  in- 
iquity, lawlessness  and  war  will  increase.  At  an 
undetermined  moment  the  Lord  will  suddenly 
come  into  the  upper  air,  raise  the  dead  in  Christ, 
transfigure  the  living  and  genuine  Christians 
and  take  them  to  Himself  to  Heaven :  the  world, 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  i  5  j 

for  a  season  will  be  given  over  to  Satanic  power; 
iniquity  will  head  itself  up  in  monstrous  and 
blasphemous  forms;  then  the  Lord  with  His 
previously  caught-up  saints  will  descend  in  maj- 
esty and  might,  execute  judgment  against  all  un- 
righteousness, cleanse  the  earth,  and  having 
bound  Satan  and  rendered  him  helpless  for  a 
thousand  years  bring  in  the  kingdr)m  of  life  and 
peace. 

Because  those  who  teach  this  believe  the  Lord 
must  come  before  the  millennium,  that  it  must 
precede  it,  they  are  called! 

Pre-Millennialists. 

Another  class  of  persons  believe  and  teach  that 
the  Gospel  will  win  its  widening  way,  dominate 
society  and  government,  the  spirit  of  Christ  will 
pervade  all  hearts,  all  will  believe  in  the  Father- 
hood of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man,  envy, 
jealousy  and  hatred  will  be  banished,  war  shall 
cease,  sw^ords  will  be  beaten  into  plough  shares 
and  spears  into  pruning  hooks,  for  a  thousand 
years  the  arts  of  peace  will  be  cultivated  and  the 
genius  of  man  revealed. 

At  the  end  of  this  period  of  peace  and  spiritual 


152  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

triumph  the  Lord  will  come;  there  will  be  a 
general  pell-mell  resurrection;  the  righteous 
will  be  separated  from  the  unrighteous;  the 
earth  will  pass  through  purifying  fires,  become 
the  abode  of  the  finally  righteous  and  sweep  on 
forever  to  the  music  of  the  spheres. 

Because  this  class  of  persons  believe  and  teach 
the  Lord  will  not  come  till  after  the  millennium, 
they  are  known  as: 

Post-Millennialists. 

They  constitute  the  majority  in  the  professing 
Church.  They  furnish  the  presidents  and  facul- 
ties of  our  theological  institutions,  editors  of  our 
religious  periodicals,  fill  the  pulpits  and  lead 
and  shape  our  denominational  interests. 

They  call  themselves  "orthodox."  They  look 
upon  pre-millennialists  as  pessimists  clad  in  the 
garb  of  darkness  and  despair,  giving  utterance 
to  words  and  testimony  which  deny  all  hope. 
They  consider  them  unsound  in  doctrine,  de- 
pressing in  method,  a  hindrance  to  the  enthusi- 
asm and  progress  of  the  Church.  They  call 
themselves  optimists,  the  people  of  the  sunlit 
message  and  defenders  of  a  triumphant  Gospel, 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  153 

In  the  face  of  all  this  I  affirm,  I  shall  demon- 
strate and  prove,  the  post-millennial  theory  of 
the  world's  conversion  before  the  Coming  of  the 
Lord  to  be  extra-Biblical,  wholly  unscriptural, 
without  a  single  foundation  in  the  Word  of  God, 
confusing  in  exposition,  utterly  absurd  as  exe- 
gesis and  contradicted  by  the  facts  of  history,  ob- 
servation and  experience. 

The  history  of  the  Gospel  to  this  hour  and  the 
attitude  which  the  post-millennialists  hold  con- 
cerning the  Second  Coming  carry  in  themselves 
presumptive  evidence  that  the  proposition  of  a 
world's  conversion  by  the  Gospel  is  entirely 
false. 

Since  that  hour  when  the  Son  of  God  sent 
forth  His  disciples  to  preach  the  good  news  of 
His  death  and  resurrection  to  every  creature, 
two  thousand  years  have  passed.  And  to-day 
after  the  most  unexampled  display  of  heroic  de- 
votion, of  unqualified  consecration,  the  unstinted 
outpouring  of  life  and  treasure  and  the  claimed 
presence  and  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  of  the 
sixteen  hundred  millions  of  the  earth's  popula- 
tion, not  more  than  four  hundred  million,  one- 


154  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

fourth,  make  an  actual  profession  of  the  name  of 
Christ.  And  of  that  number  not  more  than  a 
third,  if  so  many  as  that,  give  evidence  of  the  in- 
dwelling life  of  Christ.  In  other  words,  there 
are  more  heathen,  more  idolaters,  more  unbe- 
lievers, infidels  and  mere  professors  of  religion 
than  when  Christianity  began. 

At  the  same  rate  of  progress  it  will  take  six 
thousand  years  before  the  whole  world  makes  a 
confession  of  Christ;  and  then  in  the  same 
diminishing  ratio  spiritually  not  more  than  one- 
ninth  would  be  actual  Christians. 

But  admitting  for  arguments'  sake  that  to- 
morrow at  twelve  o'clock  noon,  every  man 
woman  and  child  will  be  genuinely  converted, 
even  then,  according  to  the  post-millennial  theory 
a  thousand  years  will  have  to  elapse  before  the 
Lord  can  come.  It  is  clear  enough  long  before 
that  time  every  man,  woman  and  child  now  liv- 
ing would  be  dead,  turned  to  dust,  and  forgotten; 
but  you  know  and  I  know  the  world  will  not  be 
converted  by  to-morrow,  nor  many  to-morrpws; 
and  that  at  this  present  rate  of  Gospel  advance, 
plus  the  thousand  years  or  millennium,  it  will  be 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  155 

seven  thousand  years  before  we  can  legitimately 
hope  for  the  Coming  of  the  Lord. 

What  interest  can  you  have  in  that  coming? 
What  interest  can  I  have  in  it?  Why  should  I 
dig  and  delve  and  seek  to  find  the  heart  of  every 
passage  which  speaks  of  that  coming?  There  is 
no  reason  for  me  to  have  any  interest.  There  is 
every  reason  to  lose  all  interest,  to  be  wholly  in- 
different to  it. 

And  this  is  just  the  attitude  of  the  post-millen- 
nialist  to  the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord. 

He  has  no  interest  in  it.  He  never  talks  of  it. 
It  is  never  in  his  heart  or  mind.  If  he  is  a 
preacher  he  never  preaches  it;  and,  in  truth,  his 
ignorance  of  what  the  Bible  really  says  concern- 
ing it;  what  it  plainly  and  continuously  teaches 
about  it  is,  as  a  rule,  as  deeply  midnight  as  the 
palpable  darkness  of  Egypt. 

But — ^I  have  shown  you  in  previous  sermons 
that  the  recard  of  the  Second  Coming  is  in- 
wrought with  the  whole  constitution  of  the  Bible 
from  Genesis  to  Revelation;  that  it  is  inwrought 
with  and  woven  into  its  very  fibre  and  essence; 
that  it  is  more  often  spoken  of  than  any  other 


1  ^6  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

event  or  doctrine  in  the  Bible;  that  while  the 
word  "atonement"  occurs  but  once  in  the  New 
Testament  and  should  not  be  at  all  translated 
"atonement,"  but,  "reconciliation"  (the  conse- 
quence of  atonement)  the  mention  of  the  Second 
Coming  occurs  once  in  every  twenty  verses.  I 
also  showed  you  that  not  only  is  the  statement 
of  the  Second  Coming  woven  into  every  fila- 
ment of  the  Bible,  but  is  bound  up  with  every 
fundamental  doctrine,  every  sublime  promise, 
every  radiant  hope  and  every  practical  exhorta- 
tion ;  and  that  it  affords  the  basis  upon  which  the 
apostles  make  their  appeal  for  the  highest  type 
of  daily  and  dutiful  Christian  living.  Not  only 
this,  but  as  I  hope  to  show  later,  the  New  Testa- 
ment exhorts  us  as  Christians  to  take  the  attitude 
of  waiting  for  the  Lord,  looking  for  the  Lord. 
We  are  exhorted  to  watch,  be  ready,  and  are 
warned  that  He  will  come  suddenly  like  a  thief 
and  in  an  hour  when  we  think  not.  The  Apostle 
Paul  writing  to  the  Church  at  Thessalonica  com- 
mends them,  not  only  because  they  had  turned  to 
God  from  idols  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God, 
but  to  wait  for  His  Son  from  Heaven.     I  have 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  157 

gone  into  and  examined  all  the  words  in  the  New 
Testament  in  respect  to  His  Coming  and  if  it 
do  not  mean  ''imminency;"  if  it  do  not  mean 
that  we  are  always  to  live  as  though  it  were  pos- 
sible in  our  day,  or  at  "any  moment,"  then  lan- 
guage has  no  certain  meaning  and  words  are  sim- 
ply instruments  to  magnify  darkness  and  dimin- 
ish the  light. 

Now  since  the  indifference,  the  absolute  in- 
difference of  the  post-millennial  attitude  to  the 
Coming  of  Christ  is  a  straightforward,  unquali- 
fied contradiction  of  the  attitude  demanded  by 
the  Scripture;  as  this  attitude  is  produced  by 
the  post-millennial  proposition  that  the  world 
must  be  converted  before  the  millennium,  then 
this  proposition  carries  with  it  the  presumptive 
evidence  of  its  own  fallacy,  of  its  utter  untruth. 

But  the  evidence  is  not  only  presumptive,  it 
is  direct. 

The  direct  evidence  is  given  by  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

He  gives  this  evidence  in  a  series  of  parables 
recorded  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  Matthew, 
the  parables  of  the  Sower,  the  Wheat  and  the 


158  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Tares,  the  Mustard  Tree,  a  woman  hiding 
Leaven  in  the  Meal,  and  the  Drag-net  Cast  into 
the  sea. 

The  sower  xast  his  seed,  some  fell  upon  the 
wayside  and  the  birds  picked  them  up.  Some 
fell  upon  a  rock  and  immediately  sprung  up,  but 
since  there  was  not  sufficient  earth  to  take  root, 
they  withered  and  fell  away.  Others  fell  among 
thorns  and  were  choked.  The  rest  fell  upon 
good  ground  and  brought  forth  fruit  in  different 
degree. 

Two  things  are  clear  enough  in  this  parable. 

First,  only  a  portion  of  the  whole  ground 
sowed  over  received  the  seed. 

Second,  there  were  three  hindrances  to  the  re- 
ception of  it: 

The  birds  which  picked  it  up. 

The  rocky  ground  which  resisted  it. 

The  thorny  ground  which  choked  it. 

Our  Lord  explains  the  parable. 

The  sower  is  any  one  who  preaches  the  Word 
of  God. 

The  seed  is  the  Word  of  God. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  1  ^9 

The  four  kinds  of  ground  represent  four  kinds 
of  hearers: 

The  wayside  hearer. 

That  is,  the  indifferent  hearer.  He  over  whose 
heart  as  a  beaten  pathway  the  providences  of 
God  and  the  Gospel  of  His  love  pass  on  and 
leave  no  impression. 

The  rocky  ground  hearer. 

That  is,  the  emotional  hearer  who  responds 
with  enthusiasm,  but  in  whose  soul  the  truth 
finds  no  root;  one  who  is  a  professor,  but  not  a 
possessor. 

The  thorny  ground  hearer. 

That  is,  the  worldling  who  is  occupied  with 
his  business  responsibilities,  the  claims  of  the 
world  and  the  pursuit  of  riches. 

The  birds  represent  the  work  of  the  Devil. 

The  rocky  ground  represents  the  flesh. 

The  thorny  ground  the  world. 

Two  things  there  are  to  be  learned  in  the  ap- 
plication of  the  parable: 

First,  during  the  absence  of  our  Lord  the  Gos- 
pel would  have,  not  a  universal,  but  fractional 
reception. 


160  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Is  it  necessary  to  recall  to  you  what  has  already 
been  said,  that  after  two  thousand  years  of  Gos- 
pel preaching,  out  of  the  world's  population  only 
a  fourth  part  have  made  any  pretence  to  re- 
ceive it? 

Second,  during  the  absence  of  our  Lord  there 
would  be  a  trinity  of  persistent,  unchanging  op- 
position to  the  Gospel,  the  world,  the  flesh,  and 
the  Devil. 

It  requires  little  demonstration  to  show  that 
this  opposition  has  continued  all  along  the  ages 
and  was  never  more  manifested  than  now. 

The  world  offers  its  cups,  its  sparkling  wine, 
its  dance,  its  places  of  amusement,  its  pleasures 
of  sin,  the  crown  of  ambition,  the  glitter  of  gold 
and  silver,  the  promise  of  wealth,  of  ease  and 
comfort.  It  stretches  out  its  arms  soft  and  ca- 
ressing, saying  with  siren  voice,  "Come  and  en- 
joy me."  The  very  sound  of  its  laughter  and 
music  drowns  the  notes  of  the  Gospel. 

The  flesh  opposes  the  Gospel  often  as  much  by 
its  acceptance  as  its  rejection;  for,  it  makes  pro- 
fessors and  not  possessors.  The  flesh,  like  the 
rock,  is  impervious  to  the  Gospel;  it  is  the  ene- 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  161 

my  of  the  Gospel  because  it  is  the  enemy  of  the 
spirit. 

The  Devil  is  that  unseen  but  all-pervading 
genius  who  combines  the  world  and  the  flesh  and 
leads  them  into  continuous  assault  against  all 
who  would  turn  to  God. 

There  is  no  hint  or  suggestion  in  this  parable 
of  a  world  converted  and  surrendered  to  Christ 
during  His  absence. 

A  householder,  the  Lord  tells  us  in  the  next 
parable,  sows  good  seed  in  his  field.  While  his 
servants  slept  an  enemy  came  and  sowed  tares 
among  the  wheat  and  went  his  way.  When  the 
wheat  appeared  the  tares  appeared  also.  The 
servant  wished  to  go  out  and  root  them  up.  The 
householder  forbade  them  because  in  rooting  up 
the  tares  they  might  root  up  the  wheat.  Both 
must  grow  together  till  the  harvest.  Then  he 
would  send  out  the  reapers  to  bind  the  tares  in 
bundles  to  be  burned,  but  the  wheat  should  be 
gathered  into  the  barn. 

Two  things  are  plainly  set  forth  here. 

First,  the  wheat  and  the  tares  grow  side  by  side 
till  the  harvest. 


162  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Second,  at  the  harvest  the  field  instead  of  be- 
ing all  wheat  is  seen  to  be  a  mixed  field  of  wheat 
and  tares. 

The  disciples  did  not  understand  the  parable. 

When  the  Lord  entered  the  house  the  disciples 
came  to  Him  and  asked  Him  to  explain  it. 

He  explained  it  to  them. 

The  field,  He  said,  is  the  world.  The  good 
seed  the  children  of  the  kingdom,  the  tares  the 
children  of  the  Devil.  The  enemy  who  sowed 
them  is  the  Devil.  The  harvest  is  the  end  of  the 
age.  The  reapers  are  the  angels.  At  the  end  of 
this  age  the  Lord  will  send  forth  His  angels 
(they  will  both  precede  and  be  with  Him  at  His 
Coming)  and  they  shall  gather  out  of  His  king- 
dom all  things  that  offend;  then  shall  the  right- 
eous shine  forth  and  the  reign  of  righteousness 
begin. 

Two  things  are  taught  in  the  application: 

First,  side  by  side  with  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  the  world  there  would  spring  up  as  the  work 
of  the  Devil,  counterfeit  systems  of  Christianity. 

These  systems  are  here. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church,  a  church  of  in- 
vented human  doctrine,  an  apostate  church,  a 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  163 

monstrous  compound  of  Judaism,  Paganism, 
and  Christianity. 

The  Greek  Church,  full  of  image  worship, 
idolatry  and  multiplied  popery. 

The  Universalist  Church,  assuring  salvation 
to  all  both  good  and  bad  and  making  the  Gospel 
and  the  preaching  of  it  unnecessary. 

The  Unitarian  Church,  denying  the  deity  of 
the  Son  of  God  and  the  penal  sacrifice  of  the 
cross. 

The  Christian  Science  Church,  which  says 
the  blood  of  Christ  was  of  no  more  avail  when 
shed  on  the  cross  than  when  flowing  through 
His  veins  in  daily  life,  denies  the  Trinity  and  the 
personality  of  God,  teaches  Jesus  and  Christ  to 
have  been  entirely  distinct,  Christ  the  principle 
of  truth,  Jesus  simply  an  "idea  conceived"  by 
the  Virgin  Mary,  and  as  a  material  appearance, 
non-existent  to-day. 

EmmanueHsm,  which  locates  the  powers  of 
salvation  in  the  subconscious  mind  instead  of 
interpenetrating  it  with  the  mind  of  Christ. 

New  thought,  and  a  whole  crowd  of  cults  and 
systems  which  borrow  the  name  of  Christ,  pa- 
rade as  Christianity  and  deny  both. 


164  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Second,  at  the  end  of  the  age  when  the  Lord 
comes  He  will  find,  not  a  world  in  which  all 
are  children  of  God,  but  a  world  divided  be- 
tween children  of  God  and  children  of  the 
Devil.    A  mixed  world  of  good  and  evil. 

Is  there  any  suggestion,  any  ground  here  upon 
which  a  teacher  loyal  to  the  truth  of  Christ  can 
stand  and  preach  the  conversion  of  the  world  by 
the  Gospel? 

The  Lord  continues  His  discourse  by  speaking 
of  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  cast  into  the  ground. 
It  springs  up,  becomes  a  great  tree  and  spreads 
forth  its  branches.  In  proportion  as  it  expands, 
it  roots  itself  deeper  in  the  earth.  It  becomes  a 
shelter  and  a  dwelling  place  for  birds. 

Two  things  are  declared : 

First,  the  tree  becomes  a  shelter  for  birds. 

Second,  it  is  deeply  rboted  in  the  earth. 

The  mustard  tree  represents  the  beginning 
and  expansion  of  the  professing  Church. 

It  began  with  a  hundred  and  twenty  members. 

It  has  grown  and  multiplied  until  to-day  its 
branches  are  to  be  found  beneath  every  sky,  in 
every  land. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  165 

The  birds  according  to  the  Son  of  God  Him- 
self (as  set  forth  in  the  parable  of  the  sower, 
for  the  word  "fowls"  there,  is  the  same  word, 
"birds,"  here)  are  symbols  of  Satan  and  his 
agents. 

Two  things  are  thus  definitely  taught  by  the 
parable: 

First,  During  our  Lord's  absence  the  pro- 
fessing Church  would  afford  a  shelter,  a  dwell- 
ing place  for  Satan  as  well  as  for  Christ. 

Startling  as  the  statement  may  seem  you  have 
only  to  read  Church  history  to  find  it  confirmed. 

When  you  read  of  the  wickedness  committed 
in  its  name;  when  you  read  of  racks  and  stake 
and  torture  set  up  and  wrought  by  its  authority; 
when  you  hear  the  tramp  of  contending  factions 
and  see  the  very  altars  and  shrines  in  its  build- 
ings drenched  with  fratricidal  blood ;  when  you 
listen  to  the  false  doctrines  which  from  time  to 
time  have  b.een  promulgated  by  it;  when  you 
know  the  paganism  of  the  Romish  Church,  the 
idolatry  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  the  infidelity, 
the  worldliness  and  unspirituality  of  Protestant- 
ism, you  may  well  believe  the  professing  Church 


166  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

has  been  a  dwelling  place  for  evil  as  well  as 
good,  a  habitation  for  Satan  as  well  as  Christ. 

Second,  In  proportion  as  the  Church  has  ex- 
patided,  it  has  rooted  itself  in  and  identified  it- 
self with  the  world  and  the  life  that  now  is. 
More  and  more  every  day  the  Church  is  moving 
down  from  the  plane  of  the  supernatural  to  the 
purely  natural  and  ethical ;  more  and  more  it  is 
transforming  itself  into  a  society  for  competitive 
morality;  more  and  more  becoming  identified 
with  civilization,  becoming  one  of  its  coincident 
factors;  more  and  more  in  turning  away  from 
spirituality,  from  regeneration  and  the  things 
that  are  eternal  is  it  taken  up  with  the  endeavor 
to  make  this  world  a  better  place  for  the  natural 
man  to  live  in,  and  to  make  the  natural  man  a 
better  man  to  live  in  it. 

The  professing  Church  repudiates  the  whole 
law  and  principle  of  unfoldment  in  wheat. 

Wheat  as  it  ripens  at  the  top  loosens  at  the 
root,  lets  go  its  hold  on  the  earth.  This  is  par- 
ticularly so  with  corn. 

In  proportion  as  the  spiritual  life  develops  in 
a  believer  he  lets  go  his  grasp  on  earth  and 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  167 

earthly  things  ripening  and  maturing  heaven- 
ward. 

The  professing  Church  fails  here  utterly.  Its 
whole  course  is  a  repudiation  of  those  symbols. 
Every  day  it  is  laying  aside  its  heavenly  char- 
acteristics and  becoming  more  and  more  earthly; 
more  and  more  a  world  Church,  a  church  of  the 
world,  included  in  and  a  part  of  that  system  of 
man. 

Surely,  this  is  not  a  Church  to  lead  men  out 
of  the  world ;  nor  is  it  a  Church  to  bring  a  spir- 
itually-conquered world  to  the  feet  of  a  tri- 
umphant Christ. 

In  the  next  parable  a  woman  is  seen  hiding 
leaven  in  three  measures  of  meal  till  the  whole 
lump  is  leavened. 

The  post-millenniallst  seizes  upon  this  para- 
ble with  uncommon  avidity,  declaring  the  ope- 
ration of  the  leaven  hidden  in  the  meal  till  the 
lump  is  wholly  pervaded  by  it  is  a  clear  and 
conclusive  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  the 
Gospel  is  to  pervade  and  possess  the  world. 

But  some  things  about  this  parable  ought  to 
be  clear,  indeed! 


168  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

You  will  note  that  the  woman  takes  three 
measures  of  meal.  Three  measures!  but  three 
measures  out  of  any  quantity  is  not  the  -whole. 
If  I  take  three  measures  of  apples  out  of  a  full 
barrel  I  certainly  am  not  taking  all  the  apples. 
I  cannot  be  said  to  have  taken  the  whole.  If  I 
take  three  measures  of  meal  out  of  a  barrel  of 
meal  I  am  not  taking  all  the  meal  in  the  barrel. 

Three  measures  of  any  thing  is  not  the  whole 
of  that  thing. 

And  as  the  Gospel  is  to  be  preached,  not  to  a 
measured  number,  but  to  the  whole  world,  then 
the  three  measures  of  meal  cannot  possibly  set 
forth  the  whole  world ;  and,  therefore,  the  prop- 
osition that  the  leaven  entirely  pervading  it, 
leavening  it,  is  the  Gospel  filling  the  world  and 
converting  it  breaks  down  of  its  own  weight. 

But,  there  is  not  the  slightest  need  of  a  mo- 
ment's darkness,  nor  a  moment's  waste  of  time 
concerning  the  identity  of  the  "lump"  of  meal 
so  leavened. 

In  the  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  the  fifth 
chapter,  the  apostle  tells  us  the  "lump"  (and  the 
three  measures  of  meal  became  a  lump)   is  a 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  169 

symbol  of  the  professing  Church.  The  Church 
Is  exhorted  to  purge  out  the  old  leaven  that  it 
may  be  a  "new  lump." 

In  hiding  leaven  In  the  lump  of  meal  the 
woman  is  symbolically  hiding  whatever  it  sym- 
bolizes not  in  the  world,  but  In  the  professing 
Church. 

Now  it  is  a  startling  fact  that  the  professing 
Church  of  Christ  in  the  world  to-day  is  divided 
Into  three  great  measures: — 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

The  Greek  Church. 

The  Protestant  Church. 

As  the  Gospel  is  to  be  preached  to  the  world 
and  not  to  the  Church;  and  since  the  lump  or 
three  measures  set  forth  the  Church  and  not  the 
world,  then  the  leaven  hidden  in  the  meal  cannot 
he  the  Gospel  pervading  the  world. 

But,  mark  you  well !  the  leaven  is  to  be  hidden. 

This  is  not- the  method  in  which  the  Gospel  is 
to  be  Introduced  into  the  world. 

Our  Lord  said  what  He  told  the  disciples  in 
darkness  must  be  spoken  in  the  light;  what  they 
heard  In  the  ear  must  be  preached  upon  the 
housetops. 


170  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

The  very  word,  ''Gospel,"  signifies,  "glad  ti- 
dings," and  ''tidings"  are  things,  not  to  be  hid- 
den but  told  abroad.  The  very  symbol  of  the 
Gospel,  that  is  to  say,  a  trumpet,  denies  that  it  is 
at  any  time  or  in  any  place  to  be  hidden.  There 
is  nothing  secret  about  the  Gospel,  like  the  trum- 
pet, its  sound  is  to  be  heard  by  all  ears. 

Leaven  may  be  hidden,  but  the  Gospel,  in  the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  cannot  be  hidden. 

But  let  us  consider  what  leaven  actually  is. 

It  is  a  sour,  corrupt,  putrid  and  putrefying 
thing. 

Is  it  possible  that  that  which  is  wholly  cor- 
rupt and  corrupting  shall  be  the  chosen  symbol 
of  that  which  is  wholly  incorruptible,  pure, 
good,  and  true? 

But,  look  you !  When  the  Passover  was  cele- 
brated leaven  must  be  entirely  removed  from  the 
house. 

To  allow  the  leaven  to  remain  was  to  subject 
the  individual  to  the  judgment  of  God.  Every 
Israelite  who  permitted  it  was  excommunicated. 

The  Passover  is  the  symbol  or  type  of  the 
Cross  of  Christ,  His  death  and  the  redemption 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  171 

achieved  by  His  blood.     It  is  the  type  of  that 
which  is  the  very  heart  of  the  Gospel. 

If  leaven  be  the  symbol  of  the  Gospel  why 
should  it  be  cast  out  of  the  house  under  an 
anathema  of  threatened  judgment  and  not  per- 
mitted to  remain  as  a  constituent  part  of  the 
Passover? 

To  ask  the  question  is  to  answer  it. 

Its  repudiation  during  the  celebration  of  that 
which  sets  forth  the  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God 
is  a  demonstration  that  leaven  is  not  and  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  cannot  be  the  symbol  of  the 
Gospel. 

The  Son  of  God,  the  very  headquarters  of 
truth  leaves  us  in  no  possible  doubt  as  to  the 
meaning  and  application  of  leaven. 

He  tells  us  it  is  the  symbol  of  false  and  corrupt 
doctrine. 

He  speaks  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees.    * 

The  Pharisees  stood  for  ritualism  and  reli- 
gious hypocrisy. 

The  Sadducees  stood  for  annihilation.    They 


172  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

denied  both  angel  and  spirit.    They  repudiated 
the  resurrection  of  the  body. 

Thus  leaven  is  a  symbol  of  ritualism,  religious 
hypocrisy,  annihilation  and  the  denial  of  the 
resurrection. 

The  Apostle  Paul  tells  us  that  it  symbolizes 
vain  glory,  malice,  legalism,  the  -works  of  the 
flesh,  the  old  nature  of  enmity  with  God. 

Ritualism. 

Religious  hypocrisy. 

Annihilation. 

Denial  of  the  Resurrection 

Vain-glory. 

Malice. 

Legalism. 

The  works  of  the  flesh. 

The  Flesh. 
What  an  arraignment  it  is  against  any  such 
proposition  that  leaven  signifies  or  in  any  fashion 
whatever  symbolizes  the  Gospel. 

It  is  beyond  all  question  the  Scriptural  dec- 
laration that  leaven  is  false  and  corrupt  doctrine, 
and  is  here  set  forth  as  false  and  corrupt  doc- 
trine introduced  into  the  Church. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  173 

A  woman  in  Scripture  is  used  either  in  a  dis- 
tinctively and  uncompromisingly  good  or  bad 
sense. 

A  good  woman  sets  forth  the  true  Ciiurch. 

A  bad  woman  the  false  church. 

The  action  of  this  woman  (considered  symbol- 
ically) is  not  good.  It  is  bad.  She  hides  false 
doctrine  in  the  Church.  She  makes  this  false 
and  corrupt  doctrine  to  permeate  the  whole  pro- 
fessing Church. 

This  symbolic  woman  may  be  seen  in  the 
book  of  Revelation. 

There  she  is  presented  as  Jezebel  and  the 
woman  clothed  "in  purple  and  scarlet  colour," 
the  Scarlet  Woman,  the  Mother  of  Harlots, 
whose  name  is  Babylon. 

These  women  are  symbols  of  Rome. 

Rome  is  the  inventor  of  false  and  corrupt  doc- 
trine. It  was  Rome  that  invented  such  doctrines 
as  the  Immaculate  Conception,  Transubstantia- 
tion,  the  Mass  or  a  perpetually  sacrified  Christ, 
Purgatory,  Papal  Indulgences,  and  Papal  in- 
fallibility. It  is  Rome  that  exalts  the  Church 
above  the  Bible,  above  the  Word  of  God,  and 


174  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

makes  the  final  authority  in  the  human  con- 
science to  be,  not  a  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  but 
"thus  says  Rome." 

From  the  beginning  the  Church  began  to  be 
filled  with  false  doctrine.  The  apostles  clearly 
foretold  these  evil  teachings  would  be  more 
and  more  manifested  as  the  age  should  go  on. 

So  far  from  the  professing  Church  filling  the 
world  with  truth  we  are  taught  by  the  Son  of 
God  that  it  would  become  the  purveyor  of  false 
and  evil  doctrines  filling  the  world  with  theo- 
logical errors. 

Our  Lord's  final  parable  is  the  story  of  a  net 
cast  into  the  sea— a  great  drag  net — which  when 
men  drew  to  the  shore  they  found  to  be  full  of 
fish,  both  good  and  bad.  They  gathered  the  good 
into  vessels,  the  bad  they  cast  away. 

This  net  is  the  purpose  of  God  as  expressed  in 
the  Gospel,  sweeping  on  through  the  age  and 
like  a  net  gathering  into  the  professing  Church 
out  of  the  troubled  waters  of  the  world  all  sorts, 
both  good  and  bad.  At  the  end  of  the  age  there 
will  be  a  separation.  The  good  will  be  taken 
away,  the  bad  cast  away. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  175 

The  very  statement  is  an  unequivocal  declara- 
tion that  the  professing  Church  would  be  made 
up  of  regenerate  and  unregenerate  members; 
that,  at  least,  there  would  be  in  the  great  sea  of 
the  world  those  who  professing  the  name  of 
Christ  should  be  regenerated,  and  those  who, 
also,  professing  the  name  of  Christ  should  be 
unregenerated. 

Just  as  the  field  was  a  mixed  field,  a  world 
divided  between  Christ  and  the  Devil ;  so,  the 
professing  Church  would  be  divided  and,  in  the 
end  of  the  age,  those  truly  Christ's  would  be 
taken  out  of  the  world  and  made  immortal, 
given  bodies  as  vessels  of  glory  and  others  re- 
jected and  left  behind. 

In  the  face  of  such  testimony  as  this,  and  with 
an  open  Bible  before  him,  on  what  basis  does  any 
man  pretend  to  teach  that  the  Church  through 
the  Gospel  is  to  convert  the  world? 

in  another  and  distinct  discourse  our  Lord 
corroborates  what  He  has  said  about  the  divi- 
sion of  the  professing  Church. 

He  delivers  the  parable  of  ten  virgins  who 
went  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom.    Five  were 


176  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

wise,  five  were  foolish.  The  foolish  took  their 
lamp,  and  took  no  oil  with  them.  The  wise  took 
oil  in  their  vessels  with  their  lamps.  While  the 
bridegroom  tarried  they  all  slumbered  and  slept. 
At  midnight  a  cry  was  made  that  the  bridegroom 
was  coming.  All  the  virgins  arose  and  trimmed 
their  lamps.  The  foolish  found  their  lamps  go- 
ing out  and  sought  to  borrow  oil  from  the  wise. 
They  bade  them  go  and  buy  for  themselves. 
While  they  went  to  buy  the  bridegroom  came 
and  they  that  were  ready  went  in  with  him  to  the 
marriage  and  the  door  was  shut.  Then  came  the 
foolish  virgins,  knocked  at  the  close  shut  door, 
plead  with  the  bridegroom  to  open  unto  them; 
but  he  refused,  answering  that  he  knew  them  not. 

The  virgins  represent  the  assemblies  of  Christ. 

Paul  tells  the  Corinthian  Church  (and  this  is 
the  Church  of  Gospel  order;  that  is  to  say,  the 
Church  which  furnishes  the  occasion  for  the 
Apostle  Paul  speaking  by  the  Spirit  in  his  epistle 
to  put  one  thing  after  another  in  order  according 
to  the  mind  of  God),  Paul  tells  this  Church  that 
it  has  been  presented  to  Christ  as  a  chosen  virgin. 

At  the  beginning  the  Church  was  told  to  wait 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  177 

like  an  affianced  virgin  for  the  return  of  the 
Lord,  not  as  a  king,  but  as  the  bridegroom. 

At  the  beginning  the  Church  accepted  this  ex- 
hortation, separated  herself  from  the  world  and 
with  upward  look  and  heavenly  walk  waited  for 
the  Coming  of  the  Lord. 

This  was  the  attitude  Paul  commended  in  the 
Thessalonian  Church  as  the  model  Church  of 
the  New  Testament. 

He  said : 

''Ye  turned  to  God  from  idols,  to  serve  the 
living  and  true  God;  and  to  wait  for  his  Son 
from  heaven." 

The  Lord  did  not  come.  The  Church  lost 
the  hope  of  His  return.  It  fell  asleep  on  the 
bosom  of  that  world  to  which  it  at  once  surren- 
dered itself. 

About  seventy  years  ago  the  cry  rang  through 
the  Church: 

"Behold,*  the  bridegroom  cometh;  go  ye  out 
to  meet  Him." 

The  cry  has  been  an  arousing  one. 

Many  are  preparing  to  meet  Him. 

How  will  He  come? 


178  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Will  He  come  when  the  sunlight  is  falling  on 
the  earth?  Will  He  come  at  the  midnoon  of 
Gospel  triumph,  when  all  the  world  is  singing 
hosannas  and  praises  to  His  name? 

Nay! 

He  is  represented  as  coming  at  midnight. 
f     Midnight  is  a  symbol  of  spiritual  darkness, 
/  ignorance  and  indifference. 

He  is  coming  then,  not  when  the  world  is 
wide  awake  and  filled  with  the  light  of  His 
glory,  but  asleep  in  the  black  midnight  of  sin, 
of  shame  and  woeful  ignorance  of  Himself. 

And  what  will  take  place  when  He  comes? 

One  part  of  the  professing  Church,  like  the 
wise  virgins  (who  with  oil  in  their  vessels  rep- 
resent Christians  with  the  Holy  Ghost  in  their 
bodies)  will  be  taken  to  Heaven  and  to  the 
marriage  of  the  Lamb. 

The  other  part  like  the  foolish  virgins  (who 
represent  mere  profession  in  the  shining  of  the 
lamp,  but  have  no  oil,  no  Holy  Spirit  in  their 
bodies)  those  who  are  unregenerate,  will  be  left 
behind,  shut  out  to  judgment,  to  tribulation  and 
to  woe. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  179 

The  official  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  will  de- 
clare: 

"Verily  I  say  unto  you,  I  know  you  not." 

What  think  you  of  that?  A  church,  a  pro- 
fessing Church,  one-half  saved,  the  other  half 
unsaved? 

Where,  I  ask  you,  is  there  any  indication  of  a 
united  Church  marching  on  with  the  sound  of  a 
triumphant  Gospel  to  the  purple  and  the  gold  of 
immediate  millennial  days? 

Our  Lord  now  tells  the  story  of  a  woman  who 
went  to  a  judge,  a  lawyer,  to  ask  him  to  take  up 
her  case  and  deliver  her  from  the  adversary. 

The  judge  was  unjust  and  refused  at  first  to 
listen  to  her  cry.  But  she  continued,  persistently 
demanding  deliverance.  He  became  wearied 
with  her  importunity.  He  answered  her  prayer. 
He  vindicated  her  cause.     He  delivered  her. 

The  Lord  teaches  that  this  woman  is  Israel 
and  here,  particularly,  the  Jew. 

The  Lord  is  the  true  and  the  just  judge. 

By  this  parable  He  declares  He  will  hear  the 
cry  of  His  people,  just  as  of  old  He  heard  the 


190  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

appeal  for  help  from  among  the  brick  kilns  of 
Egypt. 

In  that  near-coming  hour  when  their  adver- 
sary the  anti-Christ  shall  rise  to  persecute  them 
His  ear  will  be  open  to  the  cry  of  the  "elect  rem- 
nant." He  will  come  down  to  deliver  them; 
but  in  giving  this  parabolic  assurance  He  asks 
the  far-meaning  question,  "When  the  Son  of 
Man  Cometh  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth?" 

The  manner  of  this  question,  the  use  of  the 
negative  particle  in  the  Greek  demand  that  the 
answer  shall  be  in  the  negative;  in  other  words 
it  is  our  Lord's  positive  and  affirmative  declara- 
tion that  when  He  comes  the  faith  once  for  all 
delivered  to  the  saints  will  have  gone  from  the 
earth. 

In  all  this,  so  far  from  holding  out  any  hope 
that  the  Church  during  His  absence  would  con- 
vert the  world,  the  Son  of  God  makes  it  plain 
that  the  Church  will  fail  by  the  way  and  the 
world  becoming  more  and  more  rebellious  to  the 
will  of  God  will  become  indifferent  to  and  reject 
the  Church. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  181 

The  apostles  corroborate  the  testimony  of  the 
Lord. 

The  Apostle  Paul  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem 
summons  the  elders  of  Ephesus  to  meet  him  at 
Miletus  and  warns  them  that  false  teachers  will 
arise  and  seek  to  draw  away  disciples  after 
them,  perverting  the  faith ;  that  grievous  wolves 
should  enter  in,  not  sparing  the  flock. 

He  writes  to  Timothy,  the  young  preacher, 
and  warns  him  the  Spirit  speaks  expressly  that 
in  the  last  times  there  should  be  a  departure 
from  the  faith,  a  giving  heed  to  wandering 
spirits  and  to  doctrines  preached  and  pro- 
claimed by  demon-inspired  teachers. 

In  the  second  epistle  he  affirms  the  professing 
Church  will  be  lovers  of  pleasures  more  than 
lovers  of  God  ;  there  will  be  a  form  of  godliness, 
but  a  denial  of  the  power  (the  Holy  Ghost)  ;  the 
Church  will  refuse  to  listen  to  sound  doctrine, 
accepting  teachers  who  shall  turn  them  away 
from  the  truth. 

So  far  from  Christianity  becoming  the  domi- 
nant fact,  at  the  close  of  the  age  there  will  be  a 
great  apostasy,  a  falling  away,  a  down  grade; 


1  82  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

and  while  the  deity  of  Christ  will  be  denied  and 
rejected,  the  deity  of  man  will  be  exalted  and 
proclaimed. 

The  Apostle  James  warns  that  the  professing 
Church  w^ill  be  guilty  of  spiritual  adultery.  Just 
as  a  faithless  woman  yields  to  her  paramour  the 
Church  will  surrender  to  the  temptation  and  se- 
duction of  the  world ;  and  the  apostle  cries  out, 
'*Ye  adulterers  and  adulteresses,  know  ye  not 
that  the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with 
God?  Whosoever  therefore  will  be  a  friend  of 
the  world,  is  the  enemy  of  God." 

Peter  tells  us  false  teachers  should  enter  the 
Church,  even  denying  the  Lord  that  bought 
them,  the  truth  of  God  should  be  defamed  and 
many  led  astray;  in  the  closing  hours  of  the  age 
many  would  arise  in  the  Church  who  should 
mock,  laugh  at  and  deride  the  doctrine  of  the 
Second  Coming,  saying,  "Where  is  the  promise 
of  his  coming,  for  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep, 
all  things  continue  as  they  were  from  the  be- 
-^inning." 

Jude  admits  that  certain  men  (teachers)  had 
already  crept  into  the  churches  unawares;  and 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF,  CHRIST  183 

that  it  would  be  necessary  to  contend  earnestly 
for  the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints. 

John  says  there  would  arise  those  who  should 
deny  the  Lord  had  ever  come  in  the  flsh;  still 
others  who  should  deny  He  would  come  back  in 
the  flesh ;  and  he  joins  hands  with  Paul  in  testi- 
fying that  the  final  characteristic  of  the  age  will 
be,  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  but  anti-Christ. 

John  is  arrested  by  Rome  because  of  his  testi- 
mony for  the  Lord.  He  is  banished  to  the  island 
of  Patmos.  He  receives  there  a  vision  of  the 
Lord.  The  Lord  bids  him  write  seven  letters  to 
the  seven  churches  of  Asia.  In  these  letters  he 
gives  His  post-mortem  testimony  concerning  the 
course  of  the  professing  Church  in  the  world 
during  His  absence,  just  as  He  had  given  His 
ante-mortem  testimony  concerning  it  in  the  par- 
ables recorded  in  Matthew. 

Each  of  these  churches  as  indicated  in  the  let- 
ters represent  a  stage  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  at  large. 

The  predicted  course  it  takes  through  the 
world  is  one  of  departure  and  final  declension. 

In  Ephesus  it  runs  away  from  first  love,  from 


184  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

personal  devotion  to  Christ,  is  taken  up  with  the 
things  of  Christ,  but  not  with  Christ  Himself. 

The  letter  to  Smyrna  announces  that  Juda- 
izing  teachers  would  enter  the  Church  and  en- 
deavor to  put  them  on  the  ground  of  law  and  not 
grace. 

In  Pergamos  the  Church  turns  its  back  on  the 
hope  of  the  Lord's  return,  unites  itself  with  the 
governments  of  the  world,  becomes  a  Church  of 
State  and  seeks  to  set  up  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
while  He  is  still  an  absent  and  rejected  king. 

In  Thyatira  the  Church  is  seen  to  be  a  com- 
posite of  Judaism,  Paganism  and  Apostate 
Christianity,  teaches  works  of  merit,  fills  its 
buildings  with  images,  and  leads  the  people  to 
unite  in  a  worship  which  though  Christian  in 
name  is  idolatrous  in  practice. 

In  Sardis  the  Church  sets  up  a  great  name, 
professes  to  stand  for  spiritual  things,  fails  to 
accomplish  the  work  given  to  it  and  becomes 
spiritually  dead. 

In  Philadelphia  there  is  a  revival  of  the  old 
faith,  the  return  to  a  pure  Gospel  and  the  hope 
of  the  Coming  of  the  Lord. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  185 

Laodicea  is  the  last  stage  of  the  Church  in  the 
world.  It  has  grown  great  and  rich.  It  is  the 
Church  of  the  people.  It  is  a  world  Church.  It 
has  need  of  nothing.  It  is  not  dependent  on  the 
Lord.  It  can  carry  on  its  afifairs  without  Him. 
It  is  luke-warm.  It  is  indifferent  toward  Him. 
He  is  seen  outside  of  it;  He  knocks  on  the  door, 
He  is  forced  to  knock  that  He  may  gain  the  at- 
tention of  the  Church.  He  arraigns  it  as  spirit- 
ually blind,  naked  and  poor.  He  declares  He 
will  spew  it  out  of  His  mouth.  He  will  refuse 
to  own  it  any  longer  as  His  witness  in  the  earth. 

You  have  only  to  take  up  history  to  find  the 
corroboration  of  this  forecast. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  Church  lost  the 
vitalizing  sense  of  a  personal  Lord.  He  was  out 
of  sight.  The  clouds  of  Heavn  shut  Him  from 
mortal  gaze.  The  Church  could  neither  see 
nor  handle  Him.  Christians  became  occupied 
v/ith  doing  rather  than  believing;  doing  things 
for  Him,  rather  than  thinking  of  Him  or  com- 
ing into  conscious  relationship  with  Him. 

False  teachers  came  out  from  Jerusalem  and 
sought  to  put  the  Gentile  converts  under  law, 


186  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

making  circumcision  an  integral  necessity  to  sal- 
vation. Paul's  epistle  to  the  Galatians  under 
God,  and  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit,  is  the 
outgrowth  of  the  endeavor.  It  is  in  this  epistle 
he  rebukes  those  who  having  begun  in  the  spirit 
seek  to  be  justified  or  made  perfect  in  the  flesh. 
It  is  in  this  epistle  he  warns  that  the  Christian 
who  puts  himself  under  law  has  fallen  from 
grace. 

After  the  victory  at  Saxa-Rubra  and  the  Mel- 
vin  Bridge  Constantine,  who  professed  to  have 
seen  a  cross  in  the  Heavens  with  the  words 
"By  this  sign  conquer,"  adopted  Christianity  as 
the  religion  of  state.  The  Church  at  once  lost' 
its  vision  of  Heaven  and  w^as  filled  with  the 
dream  of  conquest,  taking  the  world  for  Christ 
and  setting  up  His  Kingdom.  Like  the  mustard 
tree  the  Church  began  to  root  itself  in  the  earth 
and  w^as  soon  invaded  by  the  ambitions,  the 
powers  and  the  works  of  the  flesh.  Instead  of  a 
simple  company  of  believers  walking  by  faith 
and  waiting  for  an  absent  Lord,  depending 
wholly  on  Him,  the  Church  bloomed  with  \ 
wealth,  with  outward  show  and  pomp. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  187 

The  priesthood  of  Israel  was  introduced,  the 
temples  of  the  gods  were  turned  into  churches, 
the  heathen  images  were  consecrated  as  saints, 
the  feast  days  of  Paganism  were  celebrated  as 
feast  days  with  Christian  names  or  titles,  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity  were  perverted  to  suit/ 
the  demands  of  the  times,  other  and  new  doc-^ 
trines  were  invented  and  an  apostate  and  idola-l 
trous    Christianity    filled    the   earth    until    the] 
centuries  of  its  dominance  became  so  dark,  so 
actually  black  with   ignorance   and   a   sensual,  I 
ritualistic   worship    that   they   are    called    and 
known  as  the  "dark  ages." 

Four  hundred  years  ago  under  Luther  and 
others  a  protest  was  made  against  Rome  and  her 
iniquities.  Protestantism  arose  as  an  historic 
schism,  professing  to  stand  for  the  whole  Bible 
and  a  spiritual  Christianity.  For  a  while  it 
threatened  to  overthrow  Rome,  then  lost  much 
of  the  grouad  it  had  gained,  became  unspiritual 
and  to-day,  while  thoroughly  religious  and  full 
of  fleshly,  administrative  ability  is  spiritually 
dead.  Each  year  it  is  breaking  up  into  fresh 
sects.    Each  year  Rome  seems  to  regain  new  life 


188  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

vigor,  aggressiveness,  and  with  an  unbroken 
solidarity  is  marching  steadily  forward  to  the 
temporal  sovereignty  foretold  of  John  in  the 
seventeenth  of  the  Revelation,  where  under  the 
figure  of  the  scarlet  clad  woman,  she  rides  the 
symbolic  beast  of  the  revived  Roman  Empire. 

Within  the  last  century  and  particularly  with- 
in the  last  twenty-five  years  there  have  been 
those  who  have  been  awakened  to  the  truth  of  a 
pure  Gospel,  a  present  salvation  and  the  return 
of  the  Lord  as  the  Blessed  Hope.  This  move- 
ment has  been  one  of  individuals  rather  than  of 
churches;  although,  there  are  assemblies  here 
and  there  which  have  placed  themselves  on  rec- 
ord as  standing  for  the  faith  once  for  all  deliv- 
ered to  the  saints. 

The  last  vision  of  the  professing  Church  is 
given  in  the  amazing  letter  to  the  assembly  at 
Laodicea. 

Like  Laodicea  the  professing  Church  has  be- 
come a  world  Church,  whether  considered  in 
the  light  of  Romanism  or  viewed  as  the  Protes- 
tant section.  The  Church  is  rich  (not  only  is 
Rome  rich,  but  Protestantism,  also;  that  is  to 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  189 

say,  the  wealth  of  the  world  is  in  the  hands  of 
professed  Christians).  The  Protestant  churches 
are  becoming  more  and  more  identified  with  the 
civilization  of  the  world,  seeking  to  become 
more  and  more  a  factor  in  it.  Its  advanced  men 
repudiate  the  Bible  as  the  wholly  inspired  Word 
of  God,  make  sub-conscious  influence  the  final 
standard  of  spiritual  authority,  and  cutting  out 
the  eschatology  of  the  Bible,  turn  their  backs  on 
the  hereafter,  are  taken  up  with  this  world,  the 
life  that  now  is  and  seek  with  fleshy  energy  to 
make  the  world  a  better  world  for  the  natural 
man  to  live  in,  and  the  natural  man  a  better  man 
to  live  in  the  world.  Every  day  the  evidence  is 
manifest  that  the  power  of  the  Spirit  is  being 
withdrawn  and  the  professing  Church  being  left 
to  its  own  way. 

If  the  Son  of  God  and  His  apostles  give  clear 
outline  of  the  course  of  the  Church  in  this  world 
during  His  absence,  they  give  equally  clear  and 
unqualified  outline  of  the  course  of  the  world 
itself  and  the  characteristic  finality  of  the  age. 

In  His  last  discourse  upon  the  Mount  of 
Olives  the  Lord  draws  a  startling  picture  of  the 
things  that  are  to  come  to  pass  while  He  is  away. 


190  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

He  announces  the  battle  line  will  be  flung 
round  the  circumference  of  the  earth.  There 
shall  be  wars  and  rumors  of  wars.  Nation  shall 
rise  against  nation  and  kingdom  against  king- 
dom. The  conflict  will  be  both  racial  and 
dynastic.  Earthquakes  shall  shatter  the  solid 
ground.  Famine  and  pestilence  shall  walk  hand 
in  hand.  Truth  smitten  and  wounded  shall  fall 
in  the  streets;  while  the  lie,  chariot-rolled,  shall 
sweep  on  its  unhindered  and  unwelcomed  way. 
The  Devil  will  go  about,  not  with  hoofs  and 
horns,  but  transformed  as  an  angel  of  light. 
False  Christs  shall  swarm  and  work  miracles 
which,  if  it  were  possible,  should  deceive  the 
very  elect.  There  shall  be  distress  of  nations  and 
world-wide  perplexity.  The  Heavens  will  seem 
as  though  every  star  had  loosened  and  the  un- 
bolted sky  would  fall.  The  sea  and  the  waves 
roaring  shall  break  upon  the  resounding  shores. 
Men's  hearts  shall  fail  them  for  looking  upon 
the  things  that  are  coming  on  the  earth.  Law- 
lessness shall  be  multiplied  and  iniquity  like  a 
thick  and  turgid  tide  rise  up  and  overflow  the 
foundations  of  the  righteous ;  and  that  we  may 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  191 

in  no  wise  misunderstand  the  moral  breakdown 
of  the  foreseen  hour  the  Son  of  God  in  terrible 
but  incisive  words  declares,  ''As  it  was  in  the 
days  of  Noah,  so  shall  it  be  also  in  the  days  of 
the  Son  of  Man."  "Likewise  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  Lot." 

We  know  what  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah. 

The  earth  was  filled  with  sin,  iniquity  and 
shame.  Violence  and  lawlessness  reigned  su- 
preme. Murder  was  a  fine  art,  vice  a  virtue. 
The  intents  and  purposes  in  the  heart  of  man 
were  evil  and  evil  only,  continually.  It  was  a 
time  of  civilization,  a  civilization  that  builded 
cities  and  planted  gardens,  wrought  in  brass, 
constructed  organs,  instruments  of  music  and 
had  a  literature  of  its  own.  It  was  a  civilization 
which  for  illustration  and  demonstration  might 
be  compared  to  a  man  who  carries  in  his  hand  a 
bouquet  of  beautiful  and  fragrant  flowers  while 
he  walks  in  the  midst  of  unspeakable  filth  and 
slime  whose  nauseating  depths  reach  to  his  waist. 

We  know  what  it  was  in  the  days  of  Lot. 

We  know  what  it  was  in  that  city  of  Sodom 
in  which  to  his  shame  and  confusion  he  dwelt 


192  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

A  city  so  filled  with  vice  and  lust  its  name  has 
passed  current  for  ages  as  the  concrete  expres- 
sion of  all  that  is  unnameable  in  sin. 

And  the  Son  of  God,  He  who  is  the  headquar- 
ters of  truth,  who  is  the  very  truth  and  no  lie, 
says  the  world  in  the  end  of  this  age  will  be 
morally  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah,  as  it  was. 
in  the  days  of  Sodom. 

Now  and  then  there  are  doors  opened  in  our 
underworld  and  glimpses  given  which  cause  a 
shudder.  From  time  to  time  other  doors  are 
opened  in  the  upperworld,  in  the  realm  and 
reign  of  culture,  and  revelations  are  given  which 
make  it  manifest  that  between  the  upper  and  the 
nether  strata  there  is  a  common  bond  of  corrup- 
tion and  the  unchanged  demands  of  the  flesh. 

Let  the  boast  go  on  that  the  world  is  growing 
better  and  the  sudden  down-swing  of  the  words 
of  Christ,  "As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noe,  like- 
wise as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Lot,"  ring  over 
against  the  baseless  boasting  as  an  alarum  bell 
bidding  us  to  know  they  sleep  or  deceive  who 
cry,  "All  is  well." 

The  Apostle  Paul  lifts  up  his  corroborating 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  193 

note  of  warning  that  in  the  last  days  there  shall 
be,  not  peaceful,  but  perilous  times,  evil  men 
and  seducers  shall  wax  worse  and  worse,  deceiv- 
ing and  being  deceived.  He  warns  us  that  at 
the  very  moment  when  men  shall  be  crying 
peace  and  safety,  at  that  moment,  sudden  de- 
struction shall  fall  upon  them  as  travail  upon  a 
woman  with  child. 

James  gives  a  description  of  the  closing  hours 
of  our  own  time  which  may  well  make  us  pause 
and  reflect.  There  will  be  those  who  are  spe- 
cifically designated  as  ''rich"  men.  They  shall, 
by  means  of  their  heaped-up  riches  ("heaped-up 
treasures,"  the  Spirit  calls  them)  syndicate  and 
control  the  affairs  and  the  products  of  the  world. 
They  shall  keep  back  the  just  wages  of  the  la- 
borer. These  wages  kept  back  by  "fraud"  shall 
cry  aloud  in  the  ears  of  the  God  of  Sabaoth  and 
demand  the  thrusting  forth  of  His  arm  and  the 
smiting  of  His  vengeance.  The  rich  and  the 
poor  shall  stand  facing  each  other.  At  the  end 
the  hand  of  violence  shall  lay  hold  of  the  rich, 
scattering  their  treasure,  while  the  cry  of  their 
anguish  goes  up  to  the  unanswering  skies. 


194  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

It  will  be  a  time  of  class  and  mass,  of  violence 
and  hatred ;  and  when  the  thought  of  the  "broth- 
erhood of  man"  shall  be  only  as  when  a  laugh 
smites  against  the  face  of  sorrow  and  pity  is 
turned  to  mockery. 

Peter  tells  us  there  will  be  those  who  shall 
walk  after  the  flesh,  in  the  lust  of  uncleanli- 
ness,  despising  government,  presumptuous,  self- 
willed,  repudiating  dignities  and  lashing  the 
loosed  tongue  of  scandal. 

Even  though  he  would  speak  in  the  accents  of 
love  John  cannot  hold  back  the  warning  which 
breaks  through  his  speech  as  he  declares  foul 
spirits  of  evil  will  go  forth  to  lead  the  whole 
world  to  battle. 

No  matter  from  what  point  you  scan  the 
world,  whether  from  the  Mount  of  Olives  or  the 
isle  of  Patmos;  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
Son  of  God,  or  His  apostles;  whether  it  be  the 
discourse  of  the  Christ  or  that  John  who  lay 
upon  His  breast,  there  is  no  sign  upon  the  hori- 
zon of  the  angel  of  peace.  In  all  the  winds  that 
blow  there  is  no  other  sound  than  the  cries  of 
warring  nations,  the  hiss  as  of  serpents  in  the 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  195 

way,  the  jangle  and  confusion  of  tongues,  anger, 
hatred,  envy  and  jealousy,  the  stains  of  murder, 
the  rising  forms  of  sunless  unbelief,  the  demon 
figure  of  infidelity  and  the  beast  whose  manifold 
names  write  the  word  of  blasphemy. 

And  yet  in  the  face  of  these  outlines  flung 
forth  by  the  tongue  and  pen  of  inspiration  men 
talk  of  a  world  moving  with  cumulative  step 
and  Gospel  victories  to  the  splendid  glory  of 
millennial  days. 

But  not  only  do  Christ  and  His  apostles  testify 
that  the  Church  instead  of  overcoming  and  con- 
verting the  world  will  be  overcome  and  con- 
verted by  the  world ;  not  only  do  they  testify 
with  unbroken  consent  that  the  age  in  which  we 
live  will  increase  in  sin,  in  wrong,  in  open  unbe- 
lief and  sinister  infidelity,  they  testify  with  com- 
mon accord  that  the  kingdom  is  to  be  introduced, 
not  by  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  but  by  hard- 
ening judgments  poured  upon  the  earth,  judg- 
ments that  shall  precede  and  those  that  shall  ac- 
company our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  at  His  Coming; 
and  that  it  is  by  His  personal  appearing  and 


196  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

glory  the  millennial  kingdom  is  at  last  to  be 
brought  in  and  established. 

Our  Lord  says  His  Coming  shall  be,  not  as 
when  the  first  sound  of  a  song  breaks  in  harmony 
on  the  ear;  not  as  when  a  smile  wreathes  the  lips 
of  love ;  nor  as  when  the  even  tones  of  peace  pro- 
nounce a  benediction  and  the  hand  of  greeting 
gives  the  touch  of  grace — No — but — as  it  was  in 
the  days  of  Noah. 

As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah! 

And  again  let  it  be  said,  we  know  how  it  was 
in  the  days  of  Noah. 

The  crowd  laughed  as  it  went  by  while  Noah 
preached.  Noah  builded  and  preached  while 
the  crowd  laughed  and  went  by.  Each  day  he 
builded  the  growing  ark  became  an  increasing 
condemnation  to  the  careless  world. 

Then,  suddenly,  without  warning,  the  Lord 
called  Noah  into  that  finished  ark,  shut  the  door, 
and  bolted  him  in. 

For  seven  days  no  sound  was  heard  without 
but  the  mockery  of  men  and  now  and  then  some 
wonder  at  the  preacher's  sudden  disappearance. 

But  after  seven  days! 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  197 

Clouds  now  rose  hither  and  yon.  The  Heav- 
ens bent  low  over  the  earth.  The  upper  gates, 
the  gates  "above  the  expanse"  were  unlocked  as 
when  the  rings  of  Saturn  should  be  broken.  All 
the  ocean  tides  of  the  upper  deep  poured  forth. 
The  fountains  of  the  lowest  deeps  were  broken 
up.  The  rain  came.  The  waters  descended. 
The  waters  rose.  They  ascended  above  the  high 
hills.  There  was  only  the  sullen  and  awful  roar 
of  the  waters.  The  cry  of  men  and  beast  was 
lost  in  the  smashing  thunder  of  the  rising  and 
the  falling  and  the  up-leaping  waters,  waters 
that  rose  and  fell  and  leaped  like  mqnster  beasts 
as  they  might  leap  and  spring  and  sink  their 
fangs  in  helpless  and  in  yielding  prey.  All  ex- 
cept those  in  the  ark  were  swept  away.  The  ap- 
peals for  help  to  the  silent  and  pitiless  sky,  the 
agony  of  despair  were  unheard.  There  was  only 
the  lifted  and  falling  dead,  lifted,  fallen  and 
flung  back  by  the  maddened,  resistless  and  re- 
lentless  waters. 

And  like  that  He  will  come. 

Suddenly,  without  warning  to  the  world  He 
will  come  unseen  into  the  upper  air,  call  the 


198  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Church  into  His  presence  and  hold  them  with 
Him  there  secure  against  any  threatened  woe. 

Then  seven  years,  at  least,  will  pass,  while  a 
guessing,  a  bewildered  and  Devil-led  world  will 
discuss  the  disappearance  of  the  "few." 

Seven  years/  And  then  as  when  great  beams 
in  a  mighty  building  crack;  as  when  rocks  are 
rifted  under  driving  blasts;  as  when  the  solid 
ground  seems  to  vanish  beneath  the  feet;  as 
when  the  Heavens  above  sway  and  swing  as 
though  they  turned  about  the  mast-top  of  a  toss- 
ing ship,  then  crash  of  thunders,  each  crowding 
on  the  other,  and  lightnings  that  are  as  awful 
as  the  unmasked  face  of  an  executioner  about  to 
swing  his  axe;  yea,  as  when  the  flood  of  a  long 
pent-up  wrath  that  is  none  other  than  the  wrath 
of  God  shall  burst  forth;  so  will  He  come  to 
sweep  away  with  the  besom  of  destruction  all 
that  is  unclean  and  untoward  in  that  earth  He 
has  purchased  by  His  blood. 

Then  will  He  set  up  the  kingdom  of  His 
righteousness. 

As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Lot. 

And  again  let  it  be  said,  we  know  what  it  was 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  199 

in  the  days  of  Lot  in  that  Sodom  in  which  he 
dwelt. 

First  of  all,  let  it  be  remembered,  if  we  would 
read  aright  the  story  of  Lot,  he  looked  toward 
Sodom.  Then  he  pitched  his  tent  toward  Sodom. 
He  became  a  dweller  in  Sodom.  He  took  office 
in  Sodom.  He  went  into  politics  in  Sodom.  He 
vexed  his  righteous  soul  in  Sodom.  (He  had 
vexed  it  by  the  filthy  conversation  of  the 
wicked.)  Vit  \o%t  his  testimony  in '^od.om.  Then 
the  Lord  sent  his  angels  and  snatched  His  incon- 
sistent and  worldly  follower  from  the  doomed 
city.  He  was  snatched  out  of  Sodom  at  the  close 
of  a  day — at  eventide.  When  the  morning  broke, 
it  broke  in  flames,  the  fires  descended  and  de- 
voured the  impossible  city. 

Like  Lot  many  in  the  Church  are  identified 
with  the  world.  There  are  those  who  seek  to 
cleanse  it,  purify  it  and  make  it  better.  They 
have  lost  their  testimony.  They  cannot  talk 
about  separation  from  the  world,  seeing  they 
have  themselves  become  a  part  of  it.  Their  tes- 
timony produces  laughter,  not  faith,  repudia- 
tion, not  repentance. 


200  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Suddenly,  the  Lord  will  reach  down  and 
snatch  them  out  to  meet  Him  in  the  air.  After 
that  will  come  the  morning.  The  wrath  of  God 
like  devouring  flames  will  fall  upon  a  world 
sunken  in  sin.  The  Lord  Himself  as  final  judge 
will  come  and  then — the  longed  and  looked-for 
kingdom. 

The  kingdom  is  introduced  by  judgments  at 
the  Coming  of  the  Lord. 

The  aspostles  corroborate  the  Lord. 

The  Apostle  Paul  says  He  is  coming  with  His 
mighty  angels  in  flaming  fire  to  take  vengeance 
on  those  who  know  not  God  and  who  have  not 
obeyed  the  Gospel. 

He  is  coming  to  find  Satan  incarnate  in  the 
man  of  sin.  With  the  breath  of  His  lips  and  the 
brightness  of  His  presence  He  will  overthrow 
him  and  bring  in  that  kingdom  in  which  the 
Devil  and  the  Devil's  man  shall  be  bound  be- 
neath His  feet  for  a  thousand  years. 

James  says  the  Lord  is  coming.  He  is  com- 
ing as  a  judge.  He  already  stands,  even,  at  the 
door. 

Jude  says  He  is  coming  with  ten  thousand  of 
His  saints  to  execute  judgment. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  201 

Listen  well! 

He  is  coming,  not  to  find  a  converted  world,  a 
world  filling  the  air  with  songs  and  hallelujahs 
to  His  name. 

No! 

He  is  coming  to  find  a  world  of  ungoldly  sin- 
ners, a  world  filled  with  hard  speeches  spoken 
against  God. 

Hard  speeches! 

If  all  the  hard  things  that  have  been  spoken, 
the  rebel  words,  the  fretful  words,  words  of 
fault-finding  and  murmuring  uttered  against 
Him;  if  all  the  unclean,  cursing,  obscene  words 
could  be  gathered  together  and  made  to  roll 
down  each  of  the  main  streets  of  all  the  towns  in 
all  the  world,  there  would  be  seen  such  a  tide, 
such  a  surging,  awful  monstrous  tide  of  filth  and 
poison,  the  spume  of  serpents  and  the  black,  fes- 
tering of  corruption;  words  leaping  up  and  tak- 
ing such  form  that  they  would  appear  in  all  their 
horror  like  great  clots  of  gangrene  and  sickening 
miasma  and  fever,  by  the  side  of  which  the 
Cloaca  Maxima  with  its  fetid  and  unceasing 
stream  of  pollution  of  more  than  twice  a  thou- 


202  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

sand  years  should  be  as  a  crystal  stream  when  it 
breaks  beneath  a  cloudless  morning  from  moun- 
tain fastnesses. 

He  is  coming  to  find  a  world  polluted  by  six 
thousand  years  of  indulged  sin.  He  is  coming  to 
execute  judgment  upon  it,  cleanse  it  and  then  set 
up  His  millennial  kingdom  of  purity,  chastity 
and  righteousness. 

What  Christ  and  His  apostles  say  about  the 
introduction  of  the  kingdom  the  prophets  of  the 
Old  Testament  Scriptures  without  exception 
say. 

One  after  another  announces  that  in  the  latter 
days  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  shall  cover  the 
earth  as  waters  cover  the  face  of  the  deep.  The 
Lord  will  be  the  King  and  God  of  the  whole 
earth. 

All  the  prophets  say  that. 

They  look  forward  and  bid  us  look  forward 
with  unstinted  faith  to  that  glorious  and  good 
time  coming  when  the  lion  and  the  lamb  shall  lie 
down  together;  when  they  shall  no  more  hurt, 
nor  destroy  in  all  the  earth. 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  203 

But  how  do  they  predict  this  glorious  king- 
dom time  is  to  be  introduced? 

The  answer  is — airways  by  judgments  and 
never  by  the  Gospel. 

Always,  and  climacterically,  by  the  Coming 
of  the  Lord. 

The  testimony  of  one  prophet  may  do  as  a 
sample  of  all. 

Zephaniah  testifies  that  all  shall  call  upon  the 
name  of  the  Lord  and  serve  Him  with  one  con- 
sent. 

But  when  is  this  to  be? 

Speaking  by  the  mouth  of  the  prophet  the 
Lord  Himself  says: 

"My  determination  is  to  gather  the  nations 
(the  ten  nations  of  the  revised  Roman  Empire 
under  the  last  great  Kaiser),  to  pour  upon  them 
mine  Indignation,  even  all  my  fierce  anger:  for 
all  the  earth  shall  be  devoured  with  the  fire  of 
my  jealousy.  For  THEN  (mark  you  that)  for 
then  (after  He  has  poured  out  His  anger  in 
judgment)  then  will  I  turn  to  the  people  a  pure 
language  that  they  may  all  call  upon  the  name  of 
the  Lord,  to  serve  him  with  one  consent." 


204  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

Between  the  last  days  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  last  days  of  the  New  there  is  the  Second 
Personal  Coming  of  the  Son  of  God. 

He  is  away.  He  is  the  light  of  the  world. 
While  He  is  away  there  will  be  spiritual  dark- 
ness and  blackness  of  iniquity.  He  is  Coming. 
He  is  coming  to  smite  iniquity,  to  execute  judg- 
ment, to  dissipate  the  darkness,  then  will  the 
kingdom  shine  forth,  and  those  who  are  His,  in 
the  glory  of  it. 

Judgment  and  the  climacteric,  catastrophic 
Coming  of  the  Son  of  God — the  only  way  to  the 
millennium. 

That  is  the  testimony  of  Christ  Himself. 

It  is  the  testimony  of  the  apostles. 

It  is  the  unbroken  testimony  of  the  prophets. 

But  now  turn  to  the  book  of  Revelation  and 
read  from  the  sixth  chapter  to  the  nineteenth, 
fourteen  chapters,  a  double  seven. 

Turn  to  these  chapters  and  you  will  find  there 
a  word  painting  such  as  can  be  found  in  no  other 
literature  on  earth. 

There  is  the  breaking  of  seals,  the  sounding  of 
trumpets,  thunderings  and  lightnings,  and  hail 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  205 

Stones  weighing  hundreds  of  pounds.  Fire  flows 
down  from  the  heavens  like  a  river  of  scarlet. 
It  burns  up  the  trees  and  the  grasses.  The  very 
air  is  inflamed.  The  seas  are  turned  to  blood. 
All  living  things  therein  die.  The  rivers  and 
streams  and  fountains  of  waters  are  turned  to 
wormwood.  They  gave  Him  wormwood  and 
gall  to  drink  when  on  the  cross,  but  He  would 
not.  Now  the  waters  are  turned  to  the  same  bit- 
ter draught.  Those  who  are  thirsty  must  drink 
of  this  bitterness  and  be  maddened  with  increas- 
ing thirst.  The  sun  becomes  a  great  black  blot. 
The  moon  is  turned  to  a  clot  of  blood  as  though 
all  the  blood  of  all  the  battlefields  through  all  the 
circling  years  had  poured  forth  into  one  great 
deep,  indelibly  centered  spot;  as  when  all  curves 
and  all  bending  lines  are  at  last  drawn  up  and 
thrown  down  in  one  single,  final  spot.  The 
Heavens  are  .undone  and  the  stars  like  drunken 
things  go  tottering  and  stumbling  in  their  orbits. 
The  bottomless  pit  is  opened  and  uncounted 
hosts  of  the  disembodied,  imprisoned  and  un- 
righteous dead  come  forth.  They  enter  the 
bodies  of  men  and  torment  them.     Men  seek 


2o6  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

death  and  death  flees  from  them.  Men  are 
crazed  with  desire  for  suicide.  They  cannot  kill 
themselves  because  these  lost  spirits  know  that  it 
is  their  last  opportunity  for  embodiment — that 
the  Gehenna  of  eternal  disembodiment  awaits 
them;  they  will  not  let  their  victims  kill  them- 
selves. They  possess  them  and  hold  them  in  the 
torment  of  life.  After  a  season  the  earth  will 
be  filled  with  the  murder  of  those  who  are  un- 
willing to  die.  Plague  and  pestilence  will  run  a 
race  with  famine.  The  heat  of  the  sun  will  be 
as  when  the  doors  of  a  furnace  heated  seven 
times  hotter  than  its  usual  wont  are  opened  and 
the  flame  for  a  moment  beaten  down  by  the  draft 
flies  out  and  fills  the  air  till  it  seems  itself  like  a 
circumambient  flame.  It  will  be  a  time  of  agony, 
anguish,  despair,  of  tribulation  unparalleled  and 
greater  than  mortal  flesh  can  bear. 

Yonder  in  Europe,  in  the  territory  once  occu- 
pied by  Rome  the  red  waves  of  war  are  seen 
lashing  the  shores  of  England  and  then  rolling 
eastward  to  break  with  their  bloody  surge  upon 
the  plains  of  Persia.  They  swell  upward,  mount 
and  break  with  the  spume  and  froth  of  blood  till 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  207 

the  Danubian  solitudes  and  German  forests  are 
crimson  and  the  fields  are  full  of  the  tide  of  war. 
They  recede,  they  drive  downward  to  the  Afri- 
can shores  and  the  yellow  sands  of  the  desert 
The  people  revolt.  They  rise  and  rush  like  the 
rushing  of  the  seas.  Out  of  the  tempest  and  the 
tossings  ten  Democratic  kingdoms  are  seen  (you 
may  read  of  these  ten  in  the  thirteenth  and  seven- 
teenth chapters).  Six  of  these  kingdoms  are 
ivest  of  the  Dardenelles.  Four  are  eastward  and 
include  Persia. 

Forth  from  the  East  there  comes  a  figure,  a 
soldier,  a  conqueror.  He  sweeps  westward. 
None  can  make  war  with  him.  No  matter  how 
many  or  skillful  the  combinations  against  him 
he  breaks  through  them  all.  He  is  superior  to 
all.  In  mingled  despair  and  adoration  the  world 
cries  out: 

"Who  can  make  war  with  this  wild  beast?" 
None  can.  The  ten  kings  own  their  helpless- 
ness. They  elect  him  king  oi^^r  <3//.  He  takes  the 
double-headed  eagle,  the  monstrous  two-headed 
and  one-bodied  bird  displayed  on  the  ensigns  of 
'Austria,  Germany  and  Russia.    He  points  to  the 


2o8  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

two  heads  on  the  one  body.  One  head  represents 
the  Western  Empire  of  Rome.  The  other  the 
Eastern  Empire  of  Rome.  He  declares  the  two 
halves  now  united  in  him,  one  body,  one  head. 
Rome  is  revived  under  this  tenfold  form.  This 
man  symbolized  as  a  JVild  Beast,  the  man  of 
frightfulness  and  terror  becomes  a  King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords.  He  is  a  devilized  and  de- 
monized  Kaiser.  He  rushes  eastward.  He 
crosses  the  Dardenelles.  He  marches  beyond 
the  Taurus.  He  fights  his  battles  in  Armenia 
and  in  Assyria.  He  turns  and  rushes  through 
Syria.  He  overthrows  all  opposition.  He  gath- 
ers his  armies  under  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  He 
fills  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat  with  his  troops. 
His  banners  float  on  the  very  heights  of  Olivet. 

Then  comes  the  climax! 

By  the  inspiration  of  God  the  seer  of  Patmos 
describes  it. 

The  door  in  Heaven  is  opened. 

In  the  fourth  chapter  it  opens  that  the  elect 
Church  may  ascend  and  pass  through  it  into 
Heaven.  It  opens  just  as  the  door  of  the  ark 
opened  to  take  in  Noah  and  his  family.    Just  as 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  209 

the  door  of  the  marriage  chamber  was  opened  to 
take  in  the  wise  virgins. 

The  door  in  Heaven  is  now  flung  wide  open 
and  the  Son  of  God  comes  forth. 

He  is  riding  on  a  white  horse.  He  has  many 
crowns  on  His  head.  His  eyes  are  as  a  flame  of 
fire.  A  two-edged  sword  goes  out  of  His  mouth. 
The  hoofs  of  His  horse  beat  down  the  slant  of 
Heaven.  The  hoof  beats  are  the  thunders  of 
judgment.  Behind  Him  there  ride  other  horse- 
men. These  are  the  saints  of  God,  the  redeemed 
of  the  Lord.  There  are  tens  of  thousands  and  ten 
times  thousands  of  thousands  of  the  angels  of 
God  who  accompany  them.  The  flaming  cheru- 
bim and  the  singing  seraphim  are  there.  All 
the  universe  is  moved  at  His  Coming.  Every- 
thing is  in  vibration  to  the  heart  of  It.  The 
farthest  worlds  send  their  hosts.  The  very  move- 
ment of  them  is  the  unloading  of  uncounted  and 
immeasurable  volts  of  electricity. 

His  eyes  cause  all  eyes  to  look  upon  Him. 

What  eyes  they  are! 

They  have  looked  behind  the  doors  of  palace 
and  of  hut.    They  have  looked  behind  the  doors 


2IO  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

in  the  homes  of  king  and  cotter,  prince  and  peas- 
ant, rich  and  poor. 

These  eyes  have  looked  upon  sorrow,  upon  an- 
guish and  pain.  They  have  been  filled  with  such 
tears  as  He  wept  by  the  grave  of  Lazarus. 

These  eyes  have  witnessed  scenes  of  inde- 
scribable iniquity,  debauchery  and  sin,  from  the 
wild  orgies  of  Babylon,  the  Messalinian  ban- 
quets of  Rome  to  the  equally  shameless  festals  of 
our  day;  and  the  fire  of  wrath  has  been  kindled 
in  those  eyes. 

Those  eyes  have  looked  down  into  the  intents 
and  purposes  of  the  heart.  They  have  pene- 
trated to  the  roots  of  desire,  to  impulse  and  mo- 
tive. 

These  eyes  are  blazing  now. 

All  the  pent-up  fury  of  righteous  indignation; 
all  the  antagonism  of  holiness  to  sin  is  burning  as 
on  a  brazier  where  every  coal  is  taken  from  the 
depths  of  God's  essential  being  of  holiness.  The 
glances  of  His  eyes  flash  forth  as  when  lightnings 
pierce  the  thick  and  fetid  cloud. 

They  reveal,  they  make  manifest  every  secret 
thought  and  hidden  deed.    They  scorch.    They 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  2 1 1 

burn.  They  wither  and  consume  all  that  is  un- 
clean, unrighteous  and  untrue. 

He  is  coming  to  tread  the  wine  press. 

He  is  coming  to  tread  it  alone. 

The  wine  press  is  the  earth,  the  earth  in  Pales- 
tine. 

The  grapes  are  the  bodies  of  men. 

The  juice  as  it  bursts  forth  and  runs  red  be- 
neath His  feet,  a  red  that  is  a  deep,  dark  red,  is 
the  red  of  the  blood  of  the  arteries  of  men. 

And  this  blood  will  run  a  stream  sixteen  hun- 
dred furlongs  in  length. 

He  is  coming,  not  with  an  olive  branch,  but 
with  a  rod  of  iron. 

He  is  coming,  not  to  touch  the  earth  as  softly 
as  a  kiss  on  upturned  and  waiting  lips. 

Nay!  Not  with  a  kiss  is  He  Coming,  but  to 
smite  the  earth  which  gave  Him  a  cross  of  wood, 
a  crown  of  thorns  and  a  borrowed  grave. 

He  has  nat  forgotten  and  the  earth  shall  ter- 
ribly  remember. 

And  why  is  He  Coming  In  this  fashion? 

And  what  will  He  find  when  He  comes? 

Will  He  find  a  world  whose  swords  have  been 


212  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

beaten  into  plough  shares  and  whose  spears  have 
been  beaten  into  pruning  hooks? 

Will  He  find  a  world  where  uncounted  church 
spires  point  to  Heaven  and  where  church  bells 
are  ringing  to  bid  Him  welcome? 

Will  He  find  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth 
standing  like  white  robed  choirs  singing  ho- 
sannas  to  His  name  and  casting  garlands  of  wel- 
coming praise  at  His  feet,  every  voice  bidding 
Him  come? 

Nay!  Nay!  and  alas,  Nay! 

He  will  find  a  world  arrayed  in  organized  re- 
bellion against  Him,  ready  to  deny,  reject,  and 
if  needs  be,  crucify  Him.  A  world  filled  with  the 
shouting  of  the  captains,  with  the  voice  of  phil- 
osophy, the  assaults  of  science,  the  treason  of 
those  who  should  be  His  ambassadors.  He  will 
find  human  genius  in  partnership  with  the 
powers  of  darkness  against  Him. 

In  short,  a  rebel  world  will  rise  up  with  all  the 
insolence  of  its  unbelief  and  senseless  infidelity 
to  defy  Him. 

Devil  duped  and  Devil  led  the  world  of  hu- 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  213 

man  culture,  human  progress  will  fling  itself 
against  the  bosses  of  Jehovah's  buckler. 

Then  will  He  smite  as  when  the  delayed  light- 
ning falls. 

He  overthrows  the  armies  of  the  Beast. 

He  scatters  them  as  the  leaves  of  autumn  are 
scattered  by  the  windy  blast. 

He  binds  Satan  in  the  pit. 

He  shuts  him  up  for  a  thousand  years. 

And  THEN — 

And  NOT  TILL  THEN,  does  the  kingdom  of  the 
thousand  years  begin. 

O  that  I  had  the  genius  of  a  supreme  artist, 
I  would  paint  this  picture  in  such  a  fashion  that 
the  blindest  and  most  self-determined  post-mil- 
lennialist  could  not  fail  to  seethe  truth. 

Take  up  this  nineteenth  chapter  of  the  Reve- 
lation and  read  it. 

Let  the  scene  paint  itself  before  your  very  eyes. 

Christ  and  His  saints  coming  down  those 
heavens. 

The  world  in  rebellion  and  banded  iniquity 
before  Him. 


214  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

He  executes  judgment  against  this  organized 
system. 

He  overthrows  it. 

He  binds  the  Devil. 

Then  He  sets  up  the  kingdom  and  those  who 
are  His,  and  come  with  Him,  reign  with  Him  a 
thousand  years. 

He  comes  first. 

He  comes  before  the  thousand  years. 

He  comes  before  the  millennium  therefore. 

A  child  can  see  that. 

He  comes  in  visible  glory. 

Accept  all  the  figures,  make  them  as  figurative 
and  symbolical  as  you  like,  and  then  after  you 
have  done  all  that  you  face  the  fact  that  away 
back  yonder  under  the  star-studded  sky  of  Judea, 
on  that  last  night  of  the  Supper  He  said: 

"I  WILL  COME  AGAIN." 

Not  "My  Spirit;"  not  a  phantom  of  Himself; 
not  some  emanation  of  Himself,  but  as  Paul 
dynamically  says: 

"The  Lord  Himself." 

All  this  reality,  personality  and  promised  visi- 
bility are  back  of,  supporim^g  and  sustaining  all 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  215 

the  figurative  and  symbolic  color  you  may  see  fit 
to  crowd  into  and  upon  this  descriptive  chapter. 

Whatever  else  you  may  see,  you  must  see  that 
the  Lord  is  coming  out  in  glory  and  that  the  mil- 
lennium comes  after  He  comes. 

And  it  is  not  begging  the  question  to  say  this. 

Put  it  in  any  shape  you  like,  twist  it  into  all 
the  spiritualized  vacuity  you  please,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  He  is  represented  in  the  words  of 
Holy  Writ  as  Coming  First,  and  the  millennium 
— Second. 

Thus  God  writes  Pre-Millennialism  In  the 
colors  and  forms  and  figures  of  these  nineteenth 
and  twentieth  chapters  of  the  Revelation. 

The  book  shows  us  the  professing  Church  go- 
ing from  departure  to  repudiation. 

It  shows  us  the  true  Church  inside  the  profess- 
ing Church  separated  from  the  great  mass  of 
meaningless  profession,  caught  up  to  Heaven 
and  enthroned  in  power. 

It  gives  us  the  record  of  fourteen  chapters  of 
hell  on  earth,  the  marriage  supper  in  the  nine^ 
teenth,  the  Coming  forth  in  visible  splendor  in 
open  glory,  in  executive  judgment — 


2 1  6        the  second  coming  of  christ 

And  then. 

And  then — What? 

Satan  bound,  the  kingdom  set  up,  the  millen- 
nium begun. 

What  shall  be  said  of  men  who  with  an  open 
Bible  before  them,  with  the  unbroken  testimony 
of  Holy  Scripture  that  there  can  be  no  millen- 
nium till  Christ  comes,  that  He  must  come  be- 
fore the  millennium  comes;  that  parable  and 
figure  and  symbol  and  definite  discourse  demon- 
strate and  prove  that  He  must  so  come;  that  His 
Coming  is  pre-millennial;  what  shall  be  said  of 
men,  of  teachers  who  in  the  face  of  all  this  teach 
the  world  is  to  be  converted  by  the  Gospel  and 
the  millennium  run  its  course  of  peace  before 
Christ  can  come;  that  the  world  is  growing 
every  day  spiritually  better? 

What  shall  be  said  of  men  who  as  the  globe 
turns  from  night  to  day  and  finds  the  red  line  of 
war  meeting  each  sunrise;  who  in  an  hour  when 
the  banner  of  a  boasted  civilization  has  been  torn 
to  shreds  and  every  standard  of  righteousness 
and  truth  is  being  trampled  in  the  mire  and  mud 
and  red  slime  of  an  unchecked  barbarism;  whg 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  217 

in  an' hour  when  Belgian  women  and  children  lie 
quivering  and  helpless  under  the  heel  of  self- 
vaunted  supermen ;  when  women  are  worse  than 
slain  and  children  mutilated;  when  art  and  re- 
finement and  all  highest  human  culture  are  made 
to  give  way  to  the  genius  of  war  and  the  demon 
of  destruction;  what  shall  be  said  of  men  who 
with,  all  this  piled-up  heap  of  undeniable  testi- 
mony, preach  the  world  is  to  be  and  now  is  be- 
ing converted  by  the  Gospel  and  the  millennium 
as  consequent  set  up;  who  deliberately  and  in 
the  face  of  the  inspird  Word  of  God,  banish  the 
Son  of  God  from  the  threshold  of  the  earth, 
from  nearness  to  the  Church  and  give  Him  a 
horizon  on  which  to  appear,  a  horizon  remote 
with  the  remoteness  of  a  thousand  years  after  a 
converted  world,  a  conversion  for  ivhich  there 
is  not  a  single  promise  from  one  end  of  Scripture 
to  the  other. 

What  can  you  say  of  such  teachers? 

Allowing  charity  to  dictate  the  terms  the  most 
conserv:ative  and  conceding  thing  you  can  say  is 
that  they  are  blind  leaders  of  the  blind. 

I  say  unto  you,  post-millennialism  is  the  dry 


2  1 8  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

rot  in  theological  exposition.  It  is  a  teaching 
whose  collocation  of  terms  are  words  without 
knowledge.  It  is  this  pre-determined  concept 
that  the  world  must  be  converted  by  the  Gospel 
which  formulates  the  theology  of  the  schools.  It 
is  this  pre-determined  and  so-called  optimism  of 
human  invention  which  sends  the  young  semi- 
nary graduate  out  to  better  a  world  system  which 
God  has  judged ;  which  carries  him  down  from 
the  ground  of  the  supernatural  to  the  natural; 
which  leads  him  to  lose  sight  of  the  age  to  come 
in  the  uninspired  endeavor  to  set  up  the  king- 
dom of  Christ  in  a  world  which  rejected  Him 
and  where  the  shadow  of  His  cross  still  falls  as 
the  shadow  of  an  unexpiated  crime. 

It  is  this  post-millennialism  which  is  abso- 
lutely without  the  very  first  principle  of  Biblical 
exegesis,  which  denies  the  very  first  law  of  a  sane 
exegesis,  "rightly  dividing  the  word  of  truth;" 
it  is  this  utter  lack  of  exegesis  which  is  the  bane 
of  post-millennialism,  giving  to  Scripture  the 
propositions  it  never  makes,  the  theological 
formulae  which  have  no  basis,  leading  men  to 
expect  results  which  are  never  achieved,  reacting 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  2 1 9 

upon  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Church  and  taking 
away  from  it  the  only  hope  which  can  warrant 
it  to  look  beyond  the  warring  nations,  beyond  the 
hideous  face  of  infidelity,  the  snarl  of  doubt  and 
all  the  inrushing  tide  of  mere  religiousness  and 
all  enslaving  materialism  to  that  moment  when 
He  who  is  both  God  and  man  shall  come  by 
right  of  creative  power  and  redemptive  blood 
to  take  His  own  world  to  Himself  and  reign  and 
rule  in  it  for  God  and  men. 

Post-millennialism  ought  to  be  repudiated  by 
the  Church. 

The  Church  ought  to  awake,  arouse,  and 
searching  Holy  Scripture  make  it  impossible  for 
such  teaching  to  find  a  foothold. 

I  exhort  you  as  Christians  to  awake. 

Christ  is  Coming!  Every  day  bears  witness 
the  age  is  drawing  to  an  end,  and  to  an  end  pre- 
dicted and  warned  of  God.  Your  opportunities 
to  serve  Him  here  in  the  hour  of  His  rejection 
are  passing.  You  cannot  afford  to  stand  still. 
Some  of  you  are  not  as  near  nor  in  such  fellow- 
ship and  communion  with  Him  as  you  were  a 
week  ago.    You  are  allowing  yourselves  to  drift. 


120  THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST 

The  comfort  and  the  joy  which  should  be  yours 
in  Christ  you  do  not  have.  You  are  rapidly  be- 
coming like  the  one  in  Sardis,  having  a  name  to 
live  and  yet  J<?<7^— spiritually  dead.  How  many 
have  you  brought  to  Christ  in  a  week,  a  month, 
a  year?  If  the  Lord  should  come  to-night  and 
take  you  within  the  upper  gates  would  you  pass 
all  your  eternity  without  being  able  to  find  one 
soul  whom  you  had  led  to  Him  or  brought  to 
Heaven?  What  an  eternal  sense  of  selfishness 
would  be  yours;  and  how  your  empty  handed- 
ness may  be  the  back  sweep  of  an  eternal  regret 
emphasized  in  proportion  to  your  own  selfish  en- 
joyment there. 

I  would  exhort  you  while  you  have  time,  to 
arouse  and  make  your  calling  and  election  sure. 
Not  all  who  say,  ''Lord,  Lord,"  shall  enter  in, 
even  though  they  may  have  done  great  and  nota- 
ble things  in  His  name. 

You  have  no  time  to  lose,  Christ  is  Coming. 

Let  me  exhort  you  who  are  unsaved  to  turn 
and  take  the  salvation  which  is  now  so  freely  of- 
fered you.  Let  me  exhort  you  to  awake  before 
the  trumpet  sounds.    The  Lord  is  Coming.    Any 


THE  SECOND  COMING  OF  CHRIST  221 

moment  He  may  come  and  snatch  the  Church 
away  and  .shut  you  out  to  the  smiting  of  His 
eternal  wrath. 

But  even  while  I  invite  you  to  come,  I  lift  up 
my  voice  and  utter  this  prayer: 

"Accomplish,  O  Lord,  the  number  of  Thine 
elect;  get  through  the  preaching  of  Thy  Gospel 
those  who  shall  be  eternally  Thine,  and  eternally 
Thine  because  eternally  chosen  of  Thee.  Come, 
execute  Thy  righteous  judgment,  make  clean  this 
sin-stained,  tear-drenched  earth  and  bring  in  the 
glad  millennial  day.  Come,  Lord,  com.e  and 
tarry  not;  for  every  day  every  need  of  the  earth 
is  ever  crying — ^Come/  " 


IV 

THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT  COMING  OF 
CHRIST 


The  Secret  and  Imminent 
Coming  of  Christ 

"Behold  I  come  as  a  thief."     (Revelation  i6: 

15.) 

''Behold  he  Cometh  with  clouds;  and  every 
eye  shall  see  him."     (Revelation  i :  7.) 

In  the  first  text  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  compared  to  that  of  a  thief  who  comes 
secretly  and  of  course  unseen.  The  other  is  a 
declaration  that  He  will  come  publicly  and  be 
visible  to  all. 

The  texts  appear  to  contradict  each  other. 
Actually,  they  do  not.  Each  is  the  description 
of  a  distinctive  part  of  the  Second  Coming.  The 
Second  Coming  of  Christ  has  two  well  defined 
parts.  In*  the  one  He  comes  secretly  for  His 
Church.  In  the  other  He  comes  publicly  with 
His  Church. 

In  presenting  the  theme  I  shall  follow  three 
lines  of  development: 


•226  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

The  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
while  one  great  event  is  twofold  in  order:  He 
will  come  for  His  Church  and  after  an  interval 
with  His  Church. 

The  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  the 
Church  will  be  secret  and  is  imminent. 

As  a  Church  we  are  to  wait  and  be  ready  for 
the  secret,  and  imminent  Coming  of  the  Lord. 

I.  Tlie  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  while  one  great  event,  is  twofold  in  or- 
der. He  will  come  FOR  His  Church  and  after  an 
ijiterval  WITH  His  Church. 

The  twofold  order  of  the  Second  Coming  is  set 
forth  in  tvpe,  symbol,  parable,  construction  of 
Scripture,  specially  inspired  words,  direct  decla- 
ration and  scenic  illustration. 

It  is  set  forth  in  such  typical  personal  figures 
as  Enoch,  Noah,  Lot,  Joseph,  Moses  and  Zip- 
porah. 

Enoch  lived  at  a  time  antecedent  to  the  flood 
when  the  sin,  the  iniquity  and  shame  of  the  world 
rolled  the  slush  and  the  slime  of  the  festering, 
thick  waves  of  an  indescribable  materialism  over 
every  possible  foundation  of  righteousness.     It 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  227 

was  a  time  of  lawlessness,  lechery,  measureless 
violence  and — civilization,  a  civilization  found- 
ed by  Cain  and  set  up  in  the  blood  of  his  mur- 
dered brother. 

Although  living  in  the  midst  of  this  civiliza- 
tion, violence,  crime  and  lust;  in  an  environment 
that  made  an  appeal  through  every  avenue  of  the 
senses  to  the  flesh  and  to  its  innate  desires  for  grati- 
fication, Enoch  walked  apart  from  it  all.  He 
lived,  not  merely  a  negative  life,  refusing  to 
have  fellowship  with  the  world  and  walking 
apart  from  it;  but,  on  the  contrary,  made  his 
walk  a  positive  and  aggressive  testimony  against 
it;  for  three  hundred  years,  which  eventually 
swept  all  but  eight  persons  into  the  uprising  and 
irresistible  tide  of  evil,  he  walked  with  God, 
went  on  with  God,  in  God's  way,  taken  up  with 
the  things  of  God,  holding  converse  and  intimate 
communion  with  God,  pleasing  God  at  every 
step  till,  ^t  last,  one  day,  he  walked  on  so  far  and 
intimately  with  Him  he  found  himself,  suddenly, 
and  without — dying,  in  Heaven  with  God. 

The  Lord  had  translated  Enoch  from  earth  to 
Heaven, 


228  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

The  Church  has  been  set  up  of  God  in  a  world 
of  sin,  a  world  which  in  proportion  as  it  shall  in- 
crease in  knowledge,  in  wisdom,  in  culture  and 
civilization,  will  repudiate  the  mind  and  thought 
of  God  and  refuse  to  walk  in  His  way. 

The  Church  is  not  here  to  modify  human  na- 
ture, become  a  factor  in  its  civilization,  make  the 
world  a  better  world  for  the  natural  man  to  live 
in,  or  make  the  natural  man  a  better  man  to  live 
in  the  Avorld. 

The  very  name  and  title  of  the  Church  repudi- 
ate such  an  idea.  The  word,  "church"  signifies 
in  Its  root  meaning  a  body  of  persons  called  out 
and  separated  from  the  world,  separated  from  It 
as  a  system  whose  principles  and  way  are  not  the 
principles  and  way  of  the  Spirit,  but  of  the  flesh. 

By  Its  constitution  and  calling  the  Church  is 
here  to  protest  against  the  world,  and  no  matter 
how  refined  and  beautiful  that  world  may  be- 
come, no  matter  how  efficient  as  a  system,  to  pro- 
test against  It  and  refuse  Its  civilization. 

The  Church  like  Enoch  is  to  walk  the  path  of 
separation,  to  walk  with  God,  to  be  taken  up 
with   the   things   of   God   and   to   live   such   a 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  229 

heavenly  life,  a  life  of  obedience  and  guidance 
by  the  Spirit,  that  man  shall  see  in  that  Church 
the  manifestation  and  revelation  of  God,  and  re- 
ceive from  it  the  impact  of  divine  power  and 
presence;  in  short,  the  Church  is  here  to  be  a 
spiritual  light  in  spiritual  darkness,  and  the 
voice  of  God  warning  the  world  against  the  evil 
of  its  way,  the  certainty  of  coming  judgment  and 
inviting  men  to  faith  in  a  crucified  and  risen 
Christ  as  the  only  path  by  which  the  sons  of  men 
may  find  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  life  eternal. 

The  course  of  the  Church  has  its  limit.  Chris- 
tianity was  never  intended  to  be  permanent  in  the 
world.  Like  Enoch  the  Church  will  be  trans- 
lated, the  dead  in  Christ  will  be  raised,  the  living 
will  be  changed  and  together  caught  up  to  meet 
the  Lord.  The  Church  will  be  taken  into  the 
place  the  Lord  has  gone  to  prepare  and  will  be 
at  home  in  Heaven  with  Him. 

Noah  was  a  preacher  of  righteousness.  The 
Spirit  was  his  coadjutor.  For  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  he  strove  with  men.  Under  de- 
tailed instructions  from  the  Lord  he  builded  an 
ark  for  the  saving  of  his  household.     It  was  a 


230  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

warning  that  God  was  about  to  judge  the  world, 
to  smite  it  for  its  sin,  its  violence  and  crime.  It 
was  a  condemnation  of  the  world,  a  definite  dec- 
laration that  the  end  of  all  flesh  had  come  before 
Him.  He  was  through  with  it.  He  had  no 
longer  any  hope  in  it.  He  could  no  longer  be 
patient  with  it  and  would  sweep  it  away.  Every 
hammer  stroke  driving  a  nail,  every  sound  of 
building  and  construction  in  the  ark  was  an  ac- 
cent, an  emphasis  of  God's  condemnation  against 
the  world.  At  the  same  time,  the  open  door  was 
a  daily  invitation  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come, 
to  find  shelter  and  security  in  the  way  of  salva- 
tion which  God  Himself  had  provided. 

One  day,  w^ithout  warning,  the  Lord  called 
Noah  and  his  family  into  the  ark,  closed  the  door 
and  shut  them  in.  Seven  days  passed,  days 
ominous  In  their  silence,  a  silence  broken  only 
by  the  discordant  laughter  of  men  and  the  mock- 
ing questions  concerning  the  sudden  disappear- 
ance of  the  woe  burdened  preacher  and  his  fam- 
ily. Then  there  was  the  crash  as  of  opening  gates 
in  Heaven,  the  uprush  as  of  loosened  fountains 
in  the  deep,  and  the  flood  In  all  Its  limitless  fury 
and  desolating  power  was  upon  the  earth. 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  23 1 

The  Church  is  here  like  Noah  to  condemn  the 
v/orld,  to  testify  against  it.  The  foundation  fact 
of  Christian  experience  condemns  it.  The  foun- 
dation fact  of  genuine  Christian  experience  is  re- 
generation. The  fact  of  regeneration  is  the  dec- 
laration that  no  matter  how  well  born  you  may 
be  the  first  time  you  can  not  enter  into  fellowship 
and  peace  with  God  unless  you  are  born  the  sec- 
ond time.  Each  church  building,  if  the  Church 
be  true  to  the  faith  which  warranted  the  build- 
ing, is  a  proclamation  to  every  passerby  that  the 
old  nature  of  the  flesh  is  repudiated  of  God ;  that 
no  matter  what  effort  may  be  made  to  cultivate 
or  purify  that  nature  of  flesh,  God  has  set  it  aside 
and  set  it  aside  forever. 

The  Church  is  here,  like  Noah,  as  a  warning. 
It  is  here  to  arouse  men  from  the  sleep,  from  the 
torpor,  of  self-gratification  and  satisfied  self- 
righteousness;  here  to  cry  aloud  that  men  must 
flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.  Each  Christian 
church  building  should  be  like  a  danger  signal, 
a  red  light  in  the  growing  spiritual  darkness.  At 
the  same  time  the  Church  should  be  an  abiding 
invitation,  calling  out  to  the  careless  passerby, 


232  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

bidding  him  to  enter  by  the  open  door  of  faith  to 
find  in  the  risen  and  living  Christ  the  way  of  sal- 
vation which  God  Himself  has  provided. 

But  some  day,  unknown  to  the  world,  and  an 
equal  surprise  to  the  Church,  the  Lord  unseen 
will  descend  into  the  upper  air  and  through  an 
opened  door  in  Heaven,  and  at  the  sound  of  a 
trump,  call  the  Church  into  the  place  prepared, 
close  the  door  and  shut  His  saints  within,  keep- 
ing them  there  above  the  coming  storm.  Seven 
years  at  least  will  pass.  Ominous  will  be  the 
silence  of  Heaven  and  derisory  the  laughter  of 
men  at  the  disappearance,  not  of  a  multitude,  but 
of  the  relatively  few.  Seven  years  in  which  evil 
unrestrained  shall  head  itself  up  in  blasphemous 
mockery  and  open  assault  against  God  and  His 
Christ.  Then  there  will  be  a  crash  as  when  fly- 
ing worlds  collide  and  foundations  are  destroyed. 
The  heavens  shall  seem  aflame,  the  earth  on  fire, 
and  the  Son  of  God  shall  be  seen  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven  with  all  His  holy  angels  and  all 
His  saints  to  execute  His  long-waiting  judgment 
upon  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner.  The  flood  of 
His  pent-up  wrath  shall  break  and  the  earth 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  233 

shall  be  swept  clean  of  its  stain  of  shame  and 
guilt,  the  kingdom  of  righteousness  shall  be  es- 
tablished and  the  Lord  shall  be  King  over  all 
the  earth. 

Thus  the  Coming  of  Christ  will  be  twofold. 

Like  Noah,  the  Church  will  be  called  of  the 
Lord  into  the  place  prepared.  After  an  interval, 
and  as  when  the  flood  fell,  the  Lord  will  descend 
with  all  His  saints  to  execute  judgment  and  es- 
tablish righteousness  in  the  earth. 

He  will  come  for  the  Church  and  then  with 
the  Church. 

The  story  of  Lot  is  equally  suggestive. 

Lot  is  an  historical  fact  and  a  typical  and 
prophetic  figure. 

He  looked  toward  Sodom,  pitched  his  tent  to- 
ward Sodom,  took  office  in  Sodom,  vexed  his 
righteous  soul  with  the  filthy  conversation  of 
those  who  lived  in  Sodom  and  then  lost  his  testi- 
mony in  Sodom. 

The  angels  of  God  came  suddenly  one  day  as  it 
drew  on  toward  evening,  laid  hands  on  him  as 
the  night  deepened  and  snatched  him  out  of 
Sodom.    In  the  morning  as  the  dawn  broke  the 


234  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

fire  out  of  Heaven  fell  upon  the  guilty,  vice- 
laden  and  shame-stained  city,  consuming  all  that 
Lot  with  painful  toil  had  accumulated  and 
builded  in  Sodom. 

Lot  represents  that  side  of  the  professing 
Church  w^hich  is  bound  up  and  identified  with 
the  world;  that  side  of  the  Church  which  seeks 
to  clean  up,  purify  and  make  the  world  better; 
that  side  of  the  Church  which  is  down  on  the 
ground,  has  ceased  to  be  a  pilgrim  and  a  stranger 
in  the  earth,  has  become  a  dweller  therein,  is 
joining  hands  with  the  world  to  help  it,  to  Chris- 
tianize it  and  make  it  acceptable  to  God;  that 
side  of  the  Church  which  has  lost  all  spiritual 
testimony,  fails  to  have  the  true  vision  of  God, 
mixes  flesh  and  spirit,  law  and  grace,  the  right- 
eousness of  man  and  the  righteousness  of  God, 
enters  into  partnership  with  all  secular  ministra- 
tions, and  forgetting  that  the  judgment  of  God 
hangs  as  a  suspended  doom  over  the  world,  fan- 
cies that  the  world  which  slew  a  Christ  and  re- 
pudiates His  Gospel  can  be  lured  into  the  king- 
dom of  God  by  open  and  unhesitating  appeals 
to  the  flesh. 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  235 

Everywhere  you  will  find  Churches  whose 
buildings  are  filled  with  all  instrumentalities 
for  the  culture  of  the  flesh,  gymnasia,  swimming 
pools,  reading  rooms  full  of  the  latest  novels,  en- 
tertainment bureaus;  church  buildings  which 
are  headquarters  for  boy  scouts,  literary  socie- 
ties, clubs,  employment  agencies;  churches 
which  seek  through  pleasing  of  the  flesh  to  take 
away  the  offense  of  the  Cross  and  by  coordina- 
tion with  the  things  of  this  world  to  lead  men 
into  accepting  the  antagonistic  and  flesh  contra- 
dicting things  of  God. 

Lot  represents  that  side  of  the  Church  which 
is  endeavoring  to  build  wood,  hay  and  stubble  on 
the  foundation  of  Christ ;  that  side  of  the  Church 
which  is  vexed  every  day  with  the  increasing  sin- 
fulness, mockery  and  materialism  of  the  world 
and  fools  itself  with  the  vain  hope  that  by  using 
worldly  means,  fleshly  methods  and  "up-to-date" 
ideas  it  may  make  men  friends  of  that  God  who 
through  the  lips  of  a  chosen  apostle  has  testified 
that  they  who  are  in  the  flesh,  who  walk  in  the 
flesh,  who  are  governed  by  the  very  best  and  so- 


236  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

called  sanest  principles  ^nd  practices  of  the  flesh 
— ^'cannot  please  God." 

But  suddenly  the  Lord  will  come.  He  will 
snatch  the  Church  up  out  of  the  world.  He  will 
take  even  those  who  constitute  the  worldly  side 
of  the  Church  and  like  Lot  have  been  spiritu- 
ally blind  enough  to  think  they  could  clean 
Sodom;  they  will  be  taken  because  if  they  be  in 
truth  and  reality  actually  regenerate,  with  all 
their  blindness  and  fleshly  mixtures  they  are  still 
in  the  bond  of  the  covenant.  He  will  take  them 
out  of  the  world  and  up  to  Himself.  After  that, 
after  they  have  been  clean  snatched  out  of  the 
world  will  the  Lord  sweep  down  as  with  the 
besom  of  destruction,  overthrowing  and  destroy- 
ing not  only  all  the  art,  the  culture,  the  pride  and 
refinement  of  the  natural  man,  but  all  the  or- 
ganized effort  the  Church  has  made  to  gild,  to 
paint,  to  decorate  and  make  attractive  that  lech- 
erous world  whose  sin  and  iniquity  remain  open 
to  the  gaze  of  Him  with  whom  we  have  to  do. 

Lot  was  saved  out  of  Sodom  by  being  burned 
out  of  Sodom. 

He  was  saved  ''so  as  by  fire." 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  237 

The  Coming  of  Christ  and  the  taking  of  the 
Church  will  be  to  some  Christians  like  a  dis- 
aster, it  will  be  wrenching  them  loose  from  their 
rootage  in  the  earth.  They  will  be  as  those  who 
are  saved  out  of  and  through  a  great  fire,  but 
have  had  all  their  goods  burned  up. 

But  mark  it  well!  The  Lord  said  He  could 
do  nothing  till  Lot  himself  should  be  come  out 
of  the  city.  He  could  not  and  would  not  burn  it 
up  till  Lot  was  safe  outside. 

Lot  in  Sodom  was  the  only  thing  that  stood  be- 
tween Sodom  and  the  fire  of  God. 

And  here  indeed  is  the  amazing  and  certain 
truth : 

In  spite  of  its  inconsistencies  and  worldliness 
the  Church  is  the  only  barrier  between  the  world 
and  the  judgment — wrath  of  God. 

The  Church  is  as  the  salt  of  the  earth.  It  alone 
saves  the  world  from  utter  corruption.  It  alone 
saves  it  from  the  downpour  of  the  fire  of  God. 
The  value  of  the  salt,  that  which  gives  it  pun- 
gency and  power  is  the  savor.  The  savor  of  the 
Church,  the  final  deposit  which  makes  it  as  salt 
is  the  indwelling  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 


238  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

dwelling  in  the  Church  corporately,  and  in  the 
truly  regenerated  portion  of  the  Church,  indi- 
vidually. 

After  the  Lord  had  caused  Lot  to  be  snatched 
out  of  Sodom  the  fire  fell.  After  the  Church 
shall  be  taken  up  to  meet  the  Lord  the  judgment 
of  God  will  fall. 

The  action  at  Sodom  was  twofold. 

The  Lord  came  on  the  mount  and  by  angelic 
power  took  Lot  out  of  Sodom.  In  the  morning 
He  came  over  Sodom  and  poured  His  judgments 
upon  it,  and  poured  them  forth  out  of  the  full 
cup  of  His  indignation. 

The  Lord  will  come  into  the  air  for  His 
Church;  then,  later  on.  He  will  come  'with  His 
translated  and  ascended  Church  in  judgment  on 
the  world. 

Joseph  was  rejected  by  his  brethren,  sold  into 
Egypt,  after  various  dramatic  and  providential 
experiences  became  coruler  with  the  king,  took 
to  himself  a  Gentile  wife,  and  brought  her  into 
^  his  palace.  Then  famine,  sorrow  and  bitter  trib- 
ulation fell  upon  his  father's  house,  upon  the 
brethren  who  had  so  cruelly  betrayed  and  sold 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  239 

him.  After  allowing  them  to  sufifer  for  a  season 
the  providential  penalty  of  their  blindness  and 
sin  and  to  endure  a  short  but  sharp  tribulation, 
he  took  his  wife,  entered  his  chariot  accompanied 
by  his  resplendent  guards,  revealed  himself  in 
all  his  fulness  and  royal  dignity  to  his  repentent 
brethren  and  established  them  in  the  land  of 
Goshen,  the  land  promised  by  the  king,  the 
promised  land  in  Egypt. 

Joseph  first  took  his  wife  into  his  palace,  into 
the  place  prepared  for  her,  took  her  to  himself, 
and  then  came  forth  with  her  in  the  glory  of  his 
kingly  splendor  and  established  his  brethren  in 
the  coveted  land. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  rejected  by  Flis 
brethren.  They  sold  Him  as  Joseph's  brethren 
sold  him,  into  alien  hands.  For  two  thousand 
years  he  has  been  an  exile  from  this  world.  God 
the  Father  has  taken  Him  into  associated  ruler- 
ship  with  Himself  upon  the  Heavenly  throne. 
During  these  years  of  His  exile  He  has  been  get- 
ting a  bride  from  among  the  Gentiles.  He  is  ob- 
taining that  bride  through  the  preaching  of  the 


240  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

Gospel  and  the  quickening  and  convicting  call 
of  the  Spirit. 

Some  day  He  will  descend  into  the  region  just 
above  the  confines  of  our  earth.  He  will  call  the 
Church  as  His  affianced  bride  (the  dead  raised, 
the  living  changed)  into  that  star-set  home  He 
so  long  ago  went  to  prepare.  There  His  banner 
over  her  shall  be  love.  When  the  Church  goes 
from  the  earth  the  Lord's  dealings  with  His 
brethren  in  the  flesh  will  begin.  Famine,  sor- 
row, the  anguish  of  the  Great  Tribulation  shall 
come  upon  them  (they  will  in  the  meantime  have 
returned  to  their  own  land) .  At  a  given  moment 
He  will  come  forth  with  His  Church  as  His 
married  wife.  He  will  come  forth  in  His 
chariot  and  surrounded  by  ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousand  chariots  of  glory.  He  will  make 
Himself  known  to  His  brethren.  They  will  re- 
pent at  the  sight  of  Him  and  own  Him  as  their 
once  rejected  Lord.  He  will  reveal  Himself  to 
them  fully  and  establish  them  in  the  land  which 
is  theirs  and  His,  the  land  of  the  covenant  prom- 
ise. 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  241 

The  Coming  of  Christ  is  like  that  of  Joseph. 
As  Joseph  sought  his  bride,  came  for  her,  then 
took  her  into  his  palace  and  afterward  came  with 
her  in  his  glory,  sharing  it  with  her,  so  the  Lord 
will  come,  first  for  His  Church  and  then  with 
her. 

The  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  illus- 
trated and  avouched  as  twofold. 

Moses,  like  Joseph,  took  a  Gentile  wife.  The 
Lord  representing  the  law  sought  to  slay  him 
till  his  wife  circumcised  their  son.  When  she 
had  done  this  she  called  him  her  "bloody  hus- 
band." 

Before  Moses  entered  Egypt  to  execute  the 
judgments  of  God  upon  Pharaoh  and  the  land 
he  sent  his  wife  back  and  took  her  into  the  inn 
where  she  had  been  led  to  announce  him  as  her 
bloody  husband.  An  inn  is  the  stopping  place 
for  pilgrims  and  travellers.  When  the  judg- 
ments of  (jod  had  been  executed  upon  Egypt 
Moses  came  with  his  wife  and  the  delivered 
Children  of  Israel  to  the  Mount  of  God  and  the 
glory  of  the  divine  presence. 


242  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

Let  it  be  noted,  Moses  first  came  for  his  wife, 
and  then  ivith  her  in  the  hour  of  deliverance  and 

glory. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  to  the  Church,  in- 
deed, a  bloody  husband,  a  husband  by  blood; 
but  the  blood  is  His  own,  the  blood  which  He 
shed  to  deliver  us  from  the  penalty  of  death; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  blood  by  which  He 
purchased  us  for  His  own.  The  blood  of  the 
Cross  is  the  dowry  which  He  has  brought  to  the 
Church,  the  seal  of  His  love  for  her,  and  the 
crimson  seal  of  her  union  with  Him. 

Before  He  descends  to  execute  His  judgments 
upon  a  gainsaying  world ;  before  He  descends  to 
enter  into  judgment  with  and  overthrow  that 
anti-Christ  of  whom  Pharaoh  is  the  fitting  type; 
before  He  flings  His  hardening  judgments  on  the 
earth,  He  will  call  His  Church  up  to  meet  Him. 
He  will  take  her  into  the  inn.  He  will  take  her 
up  as  one  who  was  called  to  be  a  traveller,  a  pil- 
grim and  a  stranger  in  the  earth.  He  will  put 
her  in  the  resting  place  He  has  prepared.  Then, 
after  He  has  executed  His  judgments  and  deliv- 
ered the  elect  remnant  in  Israel  He  will  come 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  243 

with  His  Church  to  the  Mount  of  God,  even  to 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  thence  to  Mount  Zion 
and  reign  gloriously  "before  His  saints." 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  twofold. 

The  twofold  Coming  is  set  forth  by  symbols. 

It  is  symbolized  by  the  coming  of  a  thief. 

We  know  how  a  thief  comes. 

He  comes  at  even,  between  the  dark  of  mid- 
night and  the  gray  of  morn.  He  comes  with  un- 
sandaled  feet,  silently,  suddenly,  softly.  He 
comes  while  all  are  asleep,  when  no  one  is  watch- 
ing. He  comes  to  steal  the  treasure.  The  house- 
hold awakes  in  the  morning.  The  thief  has 
come.    He  has  taken  the  treasure  and  is  gone. 

So,  between  the  midnight  and  the  morn  our 
Lord  will  come.  He  will  come  softly,  silently, 
suddenly.  He  will  come  when  none  are  thinking 
about  Him.  When  all  are  asleep  and  wholly  un- 
watching.  He  is  coming  to  steal  a  treasure.  He 
is  coming  to  snatch  away  a  pearl  of  great  price 
and  get  that  jewel  of  all  jewels  as  His;  but  His 
so-called  stealing  is  not  stealing.  Fie  comes  with 
the  silence  and  the  unwarning  step  of  a  thief; 
but  He  is  coming  to  take  His  own.     The  pearl  is 


244  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

the  Church.  li\^2i^t2ix\oi  great  price.  A  price 
so  great  you  have  no  values  on  earth  with  which 
to  measure  or  compare  it.  There  is  a  pearl  lying 
down  deep  and  buried  in  the  slime  of  the  under- 
tow and  tangled  weeds  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 
A  man  throws  aside  his  garments.  He  divests 
himself.  He  leaps,  he  plunges  into  the  far  de- 
scending deeps,  down  and  down.  He  lays  his 
hand  upon  the  imbedded  pearl.  He  brings  it  up. 
There  is  no  beauty  in  it.  He  gives  it  to  the  burn- 
isher. He  spends  his  labor  and  artful  care  upon 
it.  He  sets  it  in  a  rim  of  gold.  It  flashes  white 
and  spotless,  soft  as  incrusted  moon  light.  It  is 
fastened  in  the  diadem  of  a  king.  It  is  worn  on 
the  day  of  his  crowning.  The  price  is  put  upon 
it.  It  had  none  itself  as  it  lay  there  wrapped  and 
stained  and  dull  in  the  depths  of  the  sea.  The 
price  of  it  is  brought  out  of  the  down  plunge  of 
him  who  took  his  life  into  the  dark  under  the 
swelling  tide.  The  price  of  it  is  accumulated 
and  made  beyond  measure  by  the  place  it  holds 
in  the  diadem  upon  the  king's  brow. 
Such  is  the  Church. 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  245 

As  individual  believers  we  contribute  to  and 
constitute  the  Church.  Like  the  pearl  we  indi- 
vidually lay  in  the  depths  of  the  tide  of  sin.  The 
Son  of  God  disrobed  Himself.  He  divested 
Himself  of  His  form  and  appearing  as  God.  He 
plunged  downward  and  still  downward  into  the 
depths  until  the  billows  of  sin,  your  sin  and  mine, 
rolled  over  Him  on  the  Cross.  Then  He  found 
us.  He  laid  hands  upon  us.  He  lifted  us  up. 
He  has  given  us  to  the  One  who  could  polish  us 
and  make  us  gleam,  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  has 
burnished  us  on  the  wheels  and  rims  of  circum- 
stance. We  have  in  us  and  shining  out  of  us  a 
light  that  is  as  the  moonlight.  Moonlight  is 
reflected  sunlight.  The  light  in  us  is  the  reflec- 
tion of  Himself.  We  are  His  individually,  but 
when  massed  and  viewed  together  we  form  the 
pearl  of  great  price.  The  price  was  put  upon  us. 
We  had  none  in  ourselves  as  we  lay  wrapped  and 
stained  and  'dull  in  the  deeps  of  sin  and  the 
tangled  ways  of  sin.  The  price  at  which  we  are 
valued  was  brought  out  of  the  down  plunge  of 
Him  who  took  His  life  under  the  dark  and  swell- 
ing tide  that  rolled  over  Him  on  the  Cross.    We 


246  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

arc  the  most  costly  things  in  the  universe  of  God. 
We  cost  the  heart-break  of  God,  the  agony,  the 
blood  and  the  death  of  God — even  that  God  man- 
ifest in  the  flesh  and  nailed  to  the  Cross  for  us. 
The  price  put  upon  us  is  cumulative  and  will 
find  its  excess  which  no  adjective  can  qualify  in 
that  hour  when  He  shall  wear  us  forth  as  the 
perfect  jewel  of  His  perfect  crown. 

Surely  the  Church  is  the  pearl  of  great  price. 

And  He  is  coming  to  take  that  jewel  out  of  the 
world.  He  will  take  it  that  He  may  wear  it  in 
the  diadem  of  His  glory. 

The  world  will  awake  and  discover  the  Lord 
has  come,  taken  the  Church  and  gone. 

Then  for  the  first  time  will  a  sordid  world 
awake  and  arouse  to  the  worth  and  value  of  the 
Church. 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  symbolized  by  the 
lightning. 

Many  years  ago  I  was  pastor  of  a  church  in 
the  country,  yonder  amid  the  southern  Penn- 
sylvania hills.  It  was  a  summer  night,  the  night 
of  a  close  and  sultry  day.  The  air  grew  heavier 
and  the  night  blacker  than  any  raven's  wing.     I 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  24  ] 

drove  steadily.  As  my  horse's  feet  and  the 
wheels  of  my  light  wagon  echoed  in  the  old- 
fashioned  covered  bridge  spanning  the  river  be- 
tween me  and  my  home,  the  gathering  storm 
broke.  There  was  a  flash  of  lightning  which 
seemed  to  split  the  sky  in  half.  In  a  moment  I 
saw  the  hill  top,  every  tree  and  rock.  Through 
an  opening  in  the  side  of  the  bridge  I  could  see 
the  stream  leaping,  dashing  over  rock  and  stone 
and  like  a  frightened  thing  under  the  smiting  and 
pelting  of  the  rain  and  the  crying  of  the  winds, 
leaping  again  with  greater  bounds  and  breaking 
into  whitest  foam  against  the  lower  shore ;  every 
detail  was  visible  even  to  the  rusty  nails  in  the 
beams  of  the  bridge.  My  horse  cowered  and 
sunk  between  the  shafts.  Then  Heaven  and 
earth  seemed  suddenly  to  come  together  in  one 
deafening  roar  and  multiplied  echoing  crash. 

Like  that  the  Son  of  God  will  come. 

There  will  be  the  lighting  down  of  His  glory. 
It  will  illuminate  the  earth,  not  only  the  hills 
and  vales,  but  will  pour  down  the  flood  light  of 
its  revelation  into  the  intent  and  purpose  of  every 
heart. 


248  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

He  is  coming  as  a  thief  comes,  unawares  and 
in  the  silent  night,  for  His  Church. 

He  is  coming  as  the  lightning  in  the  splendor 
and  effulgence  of  His  glory  with  His  Church. 

The  Coming  of  Christ  is  compared  to  the 
morning  star  and  the  rising  sun. 

He  Himself  says  He  is  the  bright  and  morn- 
ing star. 

The  prophet  Malachi  says  He  will  arise  as  the 
sun  of  righteousness  with  healing  in  His  wings. 

The  star  comes  before  sunrise. 

This  year,  as  often  before,  while  in  the  moun- 
tains I  took  occasion  to  watch  the  morning  star, 
and  near  the  hour  of  dawn. 

It  hung  suspended  in  the  upper  skies  like  a 
lamp  of  liquid  light.  Sometimes  it  seemed  like 
a  melting  diamond,  elongating  and  ready  to 
drop.  Anon,  it  was  as  though  an  angel's  tear 
•were  ready  to  fall  upon  a  world  of  tears. 

The  mountains  stood  in  dim  and  ghostly  out- 
line. The  road  slipped  by  white  and  straight. 
In  the  distance  I  heard  the  bark  of  a  dog  and 
the  clarion  note  of  chanticleer.    Then  a  human 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  249 

figure  passed  swiftly  on  and  was  absorbed  in  the 
mysterious  vagueness  of  the  hour. 

It  was  a  time  of  silence  and  waiting. 

Lower  and  lower  sank  the  star  as  though  an 
invisible  hand  were  letting  out  instalments  of  an 
unseen  chain,  and  then,  suddenly,  without  warn- 
ing, it  dropped  behind  the  etched  outline  of  the 
mountain's  westernmost  ridge. 

There  remained  a  while  of  continued  watch- 
ing. 

There  was  fascination  in  it.  To  wait  and 
watch,  still  watch  and  note  the  Coming  Change. 

Presently  in  the  east  a  lifting  as  though  the 
sky  itself  were  rising  in  a  strip  of  light.  Then 
streams  of  light.  Then  arrows  shooting  upward 
to  the  zenith,  arrows  tipped  as  with  flame  of  fire. 
After  that  as  though  an  army  with  banners  of 
crimson  and  amethyst  and  purple  were  rushing 
on  in  an  assault  of  riotous  color.  Suddenly,  a 
great  rim  of  glowing,  scintillating  red  gold 
against  the  sky's  edge;  and  then  steadily  thrust- 
ing upward  the  wheel  of  the  chariot  of  day  and 
the  sun  ascending  to  his  place  to  reign  and  rule, 


250  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

Now  his  beams  were  upon  the  eyelids  and  the 
laggards  awoke — but  the  star  was  gone. 

Our  Lord  is  Coming  as  the  star  comes  before 
the  hour  of  sunrise,  before  the  day  breaks  in  its 
fulness. 

He  is  coming  quietly  and  softly  for  Flis 
Church. 

Those  who  are  His  will  ascend  to  meet  Him. 

Then  with  them  He  will  disappear  from  the 
region  of  the  earth. 

But  star  rise  is  prelude  to  sunrise.  As  the  sun 
in  all  His  glory  He  will  break  upon  the  view. 
The  light  of  His  splendor  will  fill  the  earth.  He 
will  come  to  reign  and  rule,  and  all  the  earth 
shall  behold  Him  in  His  majesty  and  might. 

He  is  coming  for  His  Church. 

He  will  come  ivith  His  Church. 

The  tii'ofold  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  illustrated  in  parable. 

It  is  illustrated  in  the  parable  of  the  Bride- 
groom and  the  Virgins. 

Ten  virgins  go  out  to  meet  the  bridegroom. 
While  he  tarries  they  all  fall  asleep.  At  mid- 
night they  are  awakeneS  by  the  warning  cry  that 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  25  1 

he  is  coming.  Five  of  the  virgins  are  without 
oil  for  their  lamps  which  they  find  are  going  out. 
They  can  not  borrow.  They  go  to  buy.  While 
they  are  gone  the  bridegroom  comes,  and  they 
that  are  ready  go  in  with  him  to  the  marriage 
and  the  door  is  shut.  In  the  morning  the  bride 
and  bridegroom  go  forth  to  enter  upon  the  bride- 
groom's domain  and  there  to  reign  and  rule  over 
his  servants. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  coming  for  His 
Church,  not  as  a  king  to  rule  over  her,  but  as  the 
Bridegroom  of  her  heart;  as  He  who  has  loved 
her  with  an  everlasting  love  from  before  the 
foundation  of  the  earth.  He  is  coming  to  take 
her  as  His  Bride  into  the  place  prepared.  Then, 
in  the  morning,  in  all  the  radiance  and  wonder 
of  its  dawning.  He  will  come  forth  with  her  to 
reign  and  rule  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords  in  the  wide  domain  of  His  righteousness 
and  truth. 

The  twofold  Coming  of  Christ  is  set  forth  in 
the  Construction  of  Scripture. 

It  is  set  forth  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of 
Matthew. 


252  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

In  the  first  part  of  the  chapter  our  Lord  comes 
as  a  Bridegroom. 

In  the  second  part  He  comes  as  a  King. 

In  the  first  part  He  comes  to  meet  virgins. 

In  the  second  part  He  comes  to  meet  nations. 

In  the  first  part  He  comes  to  a  marriage  cham- 
ber. 

In  the  second  He  comes  to  a  judgment  throne. 

In  the  first  part  He  comes  to  be  married. 

In  the  second  He  comes  to  execute  judgments 

In  the  first  He  comes  at  night. 

In  the  second  He  comes  in  the  morning  hour. 

The  twofold  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  proclaimed  by  two  distinct  and  specially  in- 
spired words. 

The  words  are  Greek  words :  Epiphaneia  and 
Parousia. 

Parousia  signifies,  "presence." 

Epiphaneia  is  "manifestation." 

The  two  words  may  be  found  in  a  single  text. 

"And  then  shall  that  wicked  be  revealed, 
whom  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the  spirit  of 
his  mouth,  and  shall  destroy  with  the  brightness 
of  his  coming."   (2  Thessalonians  2:8.) 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  253 

The  words  "brightness"  and  "coming,"  are  re- 
spectively, the  words,  Epiphaneia  and  Parousia. 

The  verse  therefore  should  be  rendered: 

"Whom  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the  spirit 
of  His  mouth,  and  shall  destroy  with  the  bright- 
ness or  manifestation  of  His  presence/' 

Before  manifestation  the  presence  is  there,  but 
tinmanifested,  unknown,  secret. 

The  Lord  is  coming  down  into  the  air  for  His 
Church. 

After  an  interval  He  will  come  down  to  the 
earth  with  His  Church. 

His  presence  for  the  Church  will  not  be  mani- 
fested to  the  world. 

The  world  will  no  more  see  Him  or  be  aware 
of  His  Coming  for  the  Church  than  when  He 
ascended  from  the  Church  at  Olivet. 

When  He  comes  with  His  Church,  He  will 
come  in  the  clouds  of  Heaven. 

His  presence  will  then  be  manifested  to  every 
eye. 

The  two  words  selected  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
testify  that  the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 


254  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

Christ  while  one  great  event  is  twofold  in  de- 
velopment. 

This  twofold  Coming  of  Christ  is  dynamically 
taught  in  the  direct  statement  of  Holy  Scripture. 

In  Saint  Paul's  first  Epistle  io  the  Thessalo- 
nians  and  in  the  fourth  chapter  he  tells  us  the 
Lord  is  coming  down  into  the  air  with  a  shout, 
with  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the  trump  of 
God;  that  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first,  then 
the  living  who  remain  shall  be  caught  up  with 
them  in  clouds  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air.  And 
let  it  be  noted  and  remembered  well  that  this 
verb,  "to  meet,"  has  in  it  the  idea,  not  only  of 
meeting,  but  returnituj;  as  though  the  Lord  were 
on  His  way  to  the  earth  and  the  Church  had  gone 
up  to  meet  Him  halfway  that  she  might  come 
back  with  Him. 

If  you  will  turn  to  the  fourteenth  chapter  of 
the  prophet  Zechariah  you  will  see  that  Jeru- 
salem is  surrounded  by  Gentile  armies,  the  city 
is  taken,  the  houses  rifled,  the  women  ravished, 
half  the  population  taken  captive,  the  other 
half  cut  off  from  the  city;  then  the  Lord  and 
all  His  saints  suddenly  descend  from  Heaven  in 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  2  5  5 

manifested  glory,  overthrow  the  allied  armies 
and  the  feet  of  the  Lord  stand  on  the  Mount  of 
Olives;  and  in  order  that  we  may  see  this  Com- 
ing is  not  spiritual  or  symbolic,  it  is  added  that 
this  Mount  of  Olives  is  on  the  east  before  Jeru- 
salem. 

Now  it  is  evident  the  Lord  must  come  down 
into  the  air  before  He  can  come  to  the  Mount  of 
Olives;  and,  as  in  his  letter  to  the  Thessalonians 
Paul  represents  the  Lord  as  coming  into  the  air 
for  His  Church,  and  the  Church  is  seen  going  up 
into  the  air  to  meet  Him  with  the  idea  of  return- 
ing; and  in  his  prophecy,  Zechariah  says  the 
Lord  is  coming  with  all  His  saints  to  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  it  follows  irresistibly  that  the  Coming 
into  the  air  for  the  Church  precedes  the  Coming 
to  the  mount,  and  that  this  Coming  to  the  mount 
is  none  other  than  Christ  coming  in  manifested 
glory  with  His  Church. 

The  going,  up  into  the  air  to  meet  the  Lord 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  Jews,  with  Jerusalem 
nor  the  world,  it  has  to  do  exclusively  with  the 
Church. 


256  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

The  coming  down  to  the  mount  has  to  do  with 
the  Jew,  with  Jerusalem  and  the  Gentile  world. 

Thus  the  apostle  Paul  and  the  prophet  Zecha- 
riah  testify  the  Second  Coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  is  twofold,  and  that  the  first  part 
concerns  only  those  who  are  in  Christ ;  while  the 
second  part  is  unmistakably  related  to  Israel  and 
the  world. 

In  Saint  Paul's  Second  Epistle  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians  and  in  iht  first  chapter  we  learn  the  Lord 
is  coming  with  all  His  angels  in  flaming  fire  to 
take  vengeance  on  those  who  know  not  God  and 
who  obey  not  the  Gospel.  These  are  to  be  pun- 
ished with  everlasting  destruction  from  the  pres- 
ence of  God  and  the  glory  of  His  power,  when 
He  shall  come  to  be  glorified  in  His  saints. 

This  latter  expression  as  italicized  is  in  the 
future  tense;  but  it  is  the  subjunctive  aorist  and 
should  read : 

"When  He  shall  have  come  to  be  glorified  in 
His  saints." 

That  is  to  say,  the  Lord  will  not  be  revealed 
with  His  angels  in  flaming  fire  and  taking  venge- 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  2^7 

ance  till  after  He  has  come  and  has  been  glori- 
fied in  His  saints. 

He  must  come  and  be  glorified  in  His  saints 
before  He  can  be  revealed  in  the  glory  of  His 
angels. 

There  is  one  supreme  way  only  in  which  He 
can  come  and  be  glorified  in  His  saints,  and  that 
is,  when  He  comes  to  raise  the  dead  who  died  in 
His  name  and  transfigure  the  living. 

And  this  Coming  and  glorification  is  described 
in  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  First  Thessalonians 
where  the  Lord  descends  into  the  air  to  meet  His 
Church.  Thus  in  his  second  epistle  Paul  elabor- 
ates the  first  and  teaches  in  unquestionable  clear- 
ness that  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  twofold. 

The  twofold  Coming  is  announced  in  the  sec- 
ond chapter  of  the  Second  Thessalonians  where 
the  Apostle  in  the  first  part  of  the  chapter  be- 
seeches them  by  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  (the 
word  "coming*"  here  is  parousia)  and  by  our 
gathering  together  unto  Him. 

This  is  his  definition  of,  and  inspired  termi- 
nology concerning,  the  Second  Coming  as  pre- 


258  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

sented  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  First  Thessa- 
lonians. 

According  to  this  inspired  definition  the  Com- 
ing of  Christ  for  His  Church  is  His  unmani- 
fested  presence  to  the  world  in  the  air;  and  the 
going  up  of  the  Church  to  meet  Him  is,  OUR 
GATHERING  TOGETHER  UNTO  HiM." 

''Our  gathering  together  unto  Him,"  is  there- 
fore the  Scriptural  and  inspired  title  of  the  first 
part  of  our  Lord's  Second  Coming. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  chapter  the  apostle 
announces  the  Lord  is  coming  to  overthrow  the 
man  of  sin,  the  son  of  perdition.  He  will  con- 
sume him  with  the  spirit  of  His  mouth  and  de- 
stroy him  with  the  brightness  (manifestation)  of 
Flis  Coming  (presence). 

This  Coming  to  overthrow  the  man  of  sin  is 
then  after  the  Church  shall  have  been  gathered 
up  into  the  air  to  meet  Him,  and  coincides  with 
that  Coming  of  which  Zechariah  speaks  when  he 
declares  the  Lord  shall  come  with  all  His  saints. 

Thus  the  Coming  of  Christ  is  twofold.  It  has 
two  distinct  parts. 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  259 

In  the  first  part  He  comes  into  the  air  and  the 
Church  is  caught  up  to  meet  Him. 

In  the  second  part  He  comes  with  the  Church 
to  overthrow  Anti-Christ  and  set  up  His  king- 
dom. 

The  twofold  Coming  of  Christ  is  finally  dem- 
onstrated and  proved  by  the  scenic  construc- 
tion and  dramatic  illustration  of  the  book  of 
Revelation. 

In  the  fourth  chapter  John  is  caught  up  at  the 
sound  of  a  trumpet-like  voice  through  an  open 
door  in  Heaven.  Immediately  he  beholds  twen- 
ty-four elders  clothed  in  priestly  garments,  with 
crowns  upon  their  heads  and  seated  on  thrones. 

In  the  fifth  chapter  the  Lord  is  seen  as  a  lamb 
who  had  been  slain,  but  is  now  risen  from  the 
dead.  He  is  seen  in  Heaven  as  the  Son  of  David 
and  as  David's  Lord,  as  the  King  of  the  Jews. 

He  takes  a  seven-sealed  book,  His  title  deed  to 
the  kingdom  in  Israel  and  likewise  to  the  king- 
doms of  the  world.  Each  of  the  sealed  portions 
of  the  book  contains  a  section  of  judgments  to 
be  executed  on  the  earth  before  He  comes  forth 
to  take  His  kingdom.    These  judgments  are  in- 


26o  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

tended  to  cleanse  the  kingdom,  the  area  of  the 
kingdom,  and  take  out  of  it  all  iniquity,  all  things 
which  offend.  The  twenty-four  elders  sing  a  tri- 
umphant song  when  He  takes  the  book,  declare 
He  has  a  right  to  take  it  and  break  the  seals, 
because  He  had  been  slain,  by  His  blood  had 
redeemed  them  out  of  every  nation,  people, 
kindred  and  tongue,  had  made  them  priests  and 
kings  unto  God,  and  they  should  reign  on  the 
earth. 

John  is  a  figure  of  the  true  Church  caught  up 
to  Heaven  to  meet  the  Lord  when  He  shall  de- 
scend into  the  air  with  His  trumpet-like  voice. 

The  twenty-four  elders  represent  the  trans- 
figuration and  enthronement  of  the  Church  as  a 
body  of  kings  and  priests.  The  twenty-four 
elders  singing  the  song  of  redemption  and  rule 
represent  the  Church  getting  ready  to  come 
forth  with  the  risen  Christ  when  He  shall  have 
broken  the  seals  and  begun  His  hardening  judg- 
ments on  the  earth. 

From  the  fourth  to  the  fifth  chapters  inclusive 
you  have  a  picture  of  the  first  part  of  our  Lord's 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  261 

return  and  its  effect  upon  the  Church  after  it  has 
been  translated  to  Heaven. 

From  the  fourth  chapter  to  the  nineteenth,  the 
Church  is  not  once  seen  on  the  earth. 

From  the  fifth  chapter  to  the  nineteenth  you 
have  a  picture  of  what  will  take  place  on  the 
earth  after  the  Church  has  been  removed  to 
Heaven.  Hardening  judgments  are  sent  from 
the  hand  of  God.  Anti-Christ  and  his  wild-beast 
kingdom  are  set  up  and  run  their  course. 
Heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  tumult.  It  is  a 
time  of  hell  on  earth.  It  is  a  time  when  all  men's 
hearts  are  failing  them  for  fear.  It  is  a  time 
when  fear  and  the  pit  take  hold  on  all. 

Then  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  there  is  the 
sound  of  marriage  bells.  The  Church  as  a  Bride 
makes  herself  ready  for  the  marriage  ceremony; 
she  clothes  herself  in  the  beautiful,  white  byssus 
worth  its  weight  in  gold. 

The  invitations  are  sent  out  to  the  marriage 
supper. 

The  marvellous  marriage  takes  place. 

The  indescribable  marriage  supper  is  on. 


262  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

The  door  in  Heaven  is  again  opened  and  the 
Lord  Himself  comes  forth  as  a  man  of  war  rid- 
ing the  steed  of  His  immaculate  judgment. 

He  comes  forth  as  the  undisputed  and  supreme 
Word  of  the  living  God. 

He  comes  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords. 

He  is  followed  by  the  Church  as  an  army  of 
horsemen. 

Nor  is  this  transformation  surprising. 

The  Church  is  like  a  chameleon. 

She  changes  her  color  to  suit  her  Lord. 

When  He  is  the  Rejected  One  she  walks  on 
earth  as  a  stranger  and  a  pilgrim  awaiting  His 
return. 

When  He  is  a  Bridegroom,  she  is  a  Bride. 

When  He  is  King,  she  is  a  Queen. 

When  He  is  a  warrior,  she  is  an  army  of  war- 
riors. 

When  He  comes  forth  to  judge,  she  comes 
forth  as  His  associate  in  judgment. 

When  He  is  unmanifested  in  Heaven,  she  is 
unmanifested  and  hidden  with  Him. 

When  He  is  revealed  in  glory,  she  is  revealed 
in  glory  with  Him. 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  263 

Thus  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  twofold. 

He  comes  for  His  Church. 

He  comes  ivith  His  Church. 

And  this  twofold  Coming  is  set  forth  in  Scrip- 
ture from  the  first  book,  Genesis,  to  the  last  book, 
Revelation. 

The  doctrine  of  the  twofold  Coming  of  Christ 
is  an  inhering  and  integral  part  of  the  very  fibre 
and  constitution  of  the  Bible. 

H.  The  Coming  of  Christ  for  His  Church  is 
secret  and  imminent. 

It  is  secret. 

The  taking  away  of  Enoch  was  secret. 

The  world  knew  nothing  about  it  till  he  was 
gone. 

The  taking  of  Noah  into  the  ark  was  secret. 

The  people  went  on  eating  and  drinking,  mar- 
rying and  giving  in  marriage  and  knew  not  till 
the  day  N^ah  and  his  family  entered  into  the 
ark. 

The  snatching  of  Lot  out  of  Sodom  was  secret. 

The  Sodomites  ate  and  drank  and  bought  and 


264  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

sold  and  planted  and  got  much  gain,  till  the  day 
Lot  went  out  of  the  city. 

They  did  not  know  he  was  gone  till  the  rain  of 
fire  and  brimstone  came  down  and  destroyed 
them  all. 

The  taking  of  Asenath,  Joseph's  wife,  into  the 
palace  with  him  was  secret,  was  altogether  un- 
known to  his  brethren  till  he  came  forth  with  her 
in  the  chariot  of  glory. 

The  entrance  of  Zipporah,  Moses'  wife  to  the 
inn  was  secret.  It  was  not  known  or  revealed 
till  after  she  had  entered  there. 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord  as  a  thief  in  the  night 
corroborates  the  personal  and  parabolic  types. 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord  for  His  Church  is 
not  open,  but  secret. 

He  Himself  says  to  the  Church : 

"I  will  come  on  thee  (arrive  over  thee)  as  a 
thief,  and  thou  shalt  not  know  what  hour  I  will 
come  upon  thee  (arrive  over  thee)."  (Revela- 
tion 3:  3.) 

After  He  has  warned  His  disciples  that  His 
Coming  will  be  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah, 
He  says : 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  265 

^'Watch  therefore ;  for  ye  know  not  what  hour 
your  Lord  doth  come." 

I  do  not  know  what  hour  the  Lord  will  come. 

You  do  not  know  what  hour  the  Lord  will 
come. 

The  Christian  who  presumes  to  fix  the  hour 
and  set  the  date  contradicts  the  Lord  Himself; 
but  striking  as  the  Lord's  statement  is  and  posi- 
tive as  is  His  assurance  that  no  one  knows  when 
He  will  return,  the  force  and  impact  of  the 
warning  lies  in  the  exhortation  to  watch. 

The  meaning  of  that  is  so  clear  and  simple  that 
he  who  runs  may  read. 

It  meant  to  those  disciples  to  whom  He  spoke 
that  after  He  should  go  to  Heaven  and  His  Fa- 
ther's throne  His  return  would  be  so  uncertain 
and  withal  so  imminent  they  should  be  constantly 
in  the  attitude  of  expectation  and  readiness. 

As  they  did  not  know  w^hat  hour,  so  far  as  they 
were  concerned,  it  might  have  been  any  hour. 
As  an  hour  is  made  up  of  moments  and  no  mo- 
ment was  designated,  it  might  have  been — any 
moment. 


266  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

Our  Lord's  exhortation  to  the  disciples  there- 
fore meant,  and  cannot  mean  anything  less,  that 
they  were  to  be  in  a  state  of  expectation  and 
readiness  every  -moment. 

In  the  parable  of  the  householder  who  went 
away  leaving  his  house  in  the  care  of  servants  and 
the  porter  telling  them  that  he  was  coming  back 
in  a  day  unknown  to  them,  that  he  might  in 
the  day  he  did  return  come  in  any  one  of  the  four 
watches,  at  even,  at  midnight,  at  cock-crowing 
or  in  the  morning,  and  thus  increased  and  em- 
phasized the  uncertainty  of  his  return,  our  Lord 
ends  by  applying  the  parable  and  bidding  His 
disciples  to  watch  for  His  own  return  after  He 
should  be  gone  into  Heaven,  adding  an  exhor- 
tation which  insistently  applies  to  the  Church 
and  Christians  now.    He  says : 

"What  I  say  unto  you,  /  say  unto  all,  WATCH." 

We,  as  Christians,  as  well  as  the  early  dis- 
ciples, are  taught  that  the  return  of  the  Lord  to 
His  house,  the  Church,  is  uncertain  as  to  the  day 
or  the  time  of  the  day;  and  since  it  might  be  in 
any  one  of  the  four  watches  or  hours  of  the  day, 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  267 

might  be  any  watch  or  hour  of  the  day  and,  there- 
fore, any  moment  of  any  hour. 

The  exhortation  of  the  Lord  and  its  present 
and  inevitable  application  is  the  headquarters 
and  indisputable  demonstration  that  His  Com- 
ing always  has  been  and  is  now  imminent. 

In  his  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  the 
apostle  Paul  exhorts  Christians  to  recognize  that 
they  have  not  come  behind  in  any  gift  while 
waiting  for  the  Lord;  they  have  been  equipped 
and  made  ready  for  that  event  as  an  imminent 
possibility  in  their  daily  lives;  and  while  it  is 
true  the  Coming  here  signifies  the  appearing, 
as  that  appearing  is  inclusive  of  the  Coming 
of  the  Lord  for  His  Church  and  cannot  take 
place  till  He  does  so  come,  the  exhortation  is  of 
itself  a  demonstration  and  a  proof  that  the  Com- 
ing of  the  Lord  for  the  Church  was  then  and  is 
now — imminent. 

In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  his  First  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians  the  apostle  affirms  the  Lord 
is  coming,  that  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  arise, 
and  the  living  be  changed.  In  those  who  should 
be  "living"  when  the  Lord  should  come  he  in- 


268  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

eluded  himself  as  having  expected  the  Lord 
might  come  in  his  day.    He  says: 

^'JVe  shall  not  all  sleep  (die)  but  we  shall  all 
be  changed." 

It  is  his  declaration  that  there  will  be  a  genera- 
tion of  Christians  alive  in  the  earth  when  the 
Lord  comes  and  that  this  generation  might  be 
the  generation  of  any  day,  this  day  as  of  any  day. 

In  his  Second  Epistle  to  the  same  Church  he 
announces  his  absolute  confidence  should  he  die, 
if  his  body  like  a  tent  habitation  should  be  taken 
down  he  would  still  have  a  house,  a  building  not 
made  with  hands,  a  dwelling  place  in  Heaven 
which  death  could  neither  invade  nor  touch; 
but  he  does  not  want  to  die.  He  does  not  want 
his  body  to  be  removed  and  himself,  even  for  a 
moment,  remain  a  naked  spirit,  a  disembodied 
soul.  He  wants  the  Lord  to  come  while  he  is 
alive  and  to  change  him,  transform  his  mortal 
body  and  clothe  him  with  His  heavenly  and  im- 
mortal body. 

Paul  says  all  this  because,  according  to  his 
testimony,  he  believes  the  Lord  might  come  in 
his  day,  might  come  any  time  and  save  him  from 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  269 

dying,  from  the  worm,  from  corruption  and  the 
grave. 

Paul  teaches  the  Coming  of  Christ  for  His 
saints  was  imminent  in  that  day. 

To  the  Church  at  Philippi  he  writes  that  he  is 
sometimes  weary,  the  chain  of  his  Roman  im- 
prisonment weighs  heavily  upon  him.  He  has 
been  used  of  God  to  make  saints  even  in  Caesar's 
household;  but,  he  longs  to  depart  and  be  with 
Christ  which  he  is  assured  would  be,  "far  bet- 
ter;" to  remain,  however,  and  still  witness  for  the 
Lord  he  sees  clearly  enough  is  his  prime  duty. 
He  realizes  therefore  that  he  ought  not  to  be 
wishing  for  death  and  thus  longing  to  lay  the 
Christian  armour  down.  As  a  consequence  in 
the  third  chapter  and  at  the  close  of  it  we  find 
him  saying  he  is  a  citizen  of  a  country  which 
is  in  Heaven.  He  is  no  longer  yearning  for 
death  nor  expecting  it.  With  clear  vision  he  sees 
the  Lord  .is  Coming.  He  is  waiting  for  that 
Coming.  He  is  waiting  for  the  Lord  to  come  as 
the  Saviour  of^his  body.  He  is  expecting  Him 
at  any  time  and  according  to  His  measureless 
power  to  change  this  mortal  body,  this  body  of 


270  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

limitation  and  humiliation  and  fashion  it  like 
unto  His  own  body  of  immortality  and  glory. 

Every  word  he  writes  combines  to  utter  and 
proclaim  the  immense  fact  that  in  the  hour  when 
he  wrote  the  letter  he  with  the  rest  of  the  Church 
looked  upon  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  as  immi- 
nent. 

He  writes  to  the  Church  at  Thessalonica,  the 
first  inspired  epistle  he  ever  wrote.  In  this  letter 
he  commends  the  Christians  of  that  Church,  not 
only  because  they  had  turned  to  God  from  idols 
to  serve  the  living  and  true  God,  but  because  they 
were  waiting  (expecting)  the  risen  Son  of  God 
who  had  delivered  them  from  the  wrath  to  come, 
to  descend  from  Heaven  and  take  them  to  Him- 
self. 

He  tells  those  who  were  sorrowing  over  their 
dead,  those  who  had  fallen  asleep  in  Christ,  not 
to  Sorrow  as  others  who  had  no  hope,  because 
the  Lord  was  Coming.  He  would  come  down 
into  the  air  and  even  before  He  should  manifest 
His  power  upon  the  living  He  would  raise  the 
Christian  dead.  Then  he  says  the  living  should 
be  changed  and  both  the  risen  and  the  trans- 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  27  i 

figured  be  caught  up  together  and  meet  (and 
necessarily  know  one  another)  in  the  Lord's 
presence.  In  saying  all  this  he  uses  the  simple 
but  tremendously  significant  words : 

^'We  which  are  alive,  and  remain  unto  the 
Coming  of  the  Lord." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  state  in  any  more 
forceful  or  dynamic  Vv^ay  the  apostle's  belief  that 
he  might  not  die;  that  in  all  probability  he 
would  continue  to  live  till  the  Lord  should  come ; 
and  as  he  fixed  no  date  nor  time  nor  season — it 
might  be  any  day. 

If  this  language  and  attitude  do  not  mean  im- 
minency;  and  if  he  does  not  involve  the  whole 
Church  in  the  same  attitude  of  expected  immi- 
nency,  then  the  language  of  the  apostle  Paul 
may  as  well  be  repudiated  as  having  any  capacity 
for  intelligent  meaning. 

In  writing  to  these  same  Thessalonian  Chris- 
tians he  sincerely  prays  the  entire  spirit,  soul 
and  body  of  each  may  be  preserved  blameless 
unto  the  Coming  of  the  Lord. 

In  no  stronger,  more  absolutely  positive  way 
could  the  Apostle  put  himself  on  record  as  pray- 


272  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

ing  that  not  one  of  them  should  die  till  the  Lord 
should  come. 

He  writes  to  Titus  that  the  Coming  of  the 
Lord  is  the  "Blessed  Hope;"  and  that  the  grace 
of  God  teaches  us  as  Christians  to  be  expecting 
it  while  we  live. 

Take  up  and  reflect  upon  this  startling  state- 
ment of  his. 

This  is  what  he  says: 

''The  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation 
hath  appeared  to  all  men, 

"Teaching  us,  that,  denying  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly,  right- 
eously, and  godly,  in  this  present  world; 

"Looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  and  the  glori- 
ous appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ." 

Grace  teaching  us  how  to  live,  and  as  the  cul- 
mination of  that  grace-taught  life,  to  be  looking 
that  is,  expecting  the  Lord  to  come  while  we  live. 

If  this  is  not  imminency  and  if  we  are  not 
here  taught  that  this  attitude  of  expectancy  is 
bequeathed  as  the  gift  and  teaching  of  grace  to 
the  Church  through  all  ages  even  to  the  present 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  2/3 

hour,  then  the  language  of  the  New  Testament 
is  a  compound  collocation  of  trifling  and  mean- 
ingless phrases. 

Paul  writes  to  the  Hebrew  Christians  to  re- 
member YoTii  Kip  pur,  the  Day  of  Atonement; 
and  just  as  the  Israelites  after  the  sacrifice  were 
waiting  and  expecting  the  chosen  man  who  had 
led  away  the  scapegoat  to  come  back  without  the 
sin-ofifering  unto  their  complete  and  full,  typi- 
cal salvation,  so  they  should  be  waiting  and  ex- 
pecting the  Lord  to  return  as  one  who  had  dis- 
charged their  sins  and  cast  them  behind  His 
back. 

This  is  the  testimony  of  the  apostle  Paul,  an 
unbroken  testimony  that  the  Coming  of  the  Lord 
was  imminent  in  his  day  and,  therefore,  since  he 
was  writing  to  the  Church  for  all  time,  imminent 
in  our  day. 

James  declares  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  draw- 
eth  nigh.  He  is  even  at  the  door.  He  is  standing 
there  as  judge.  The  time  has  come  for  judgment 
to  begin  at  the  House  of  God  before  it  begins 
upon  the  world.  Should  the  door  open  and  the 
Lord  come,  the  Church  would  find  itself  face  to 


274  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

face  with  the  judgment  seat  where  Christians 
must  answer,  not  for  salvation,  but  for  the  stew- 
ardship of  salvation. 

The  Lord  Himself  is  the  supreme  witness  of 
His  own  imminency. 

He  bids  the  apostle  John  write  a  letter  which 
He  Himself  dictates  to  the  Church  at  Sardis, 
and  which  He  bids  all  the  Churches  to  hear  as 
the  message  of  the  Holy  Ghost  for  this  age. 

He  says: 

"If  therefore  thou  shalt  not  watch,  I  will  ar- 
rive over  thee  as  a  thief,  and  thou  shalt  not  know 
what  hour  I  will  arrive  over  thee." 

In  this  He  says  to  the  Church  at  Sardis,  and  to 
the  Church  in  the  world  everywhere  to-day: 

"I  am  coming.  There  is  not  a  predicted  event 
between  us.  My  coming  is  so  imminent,  the  only 
safe  attitude  for  you  to  take  is  to  be  waiting  and 
watching  for  me." 

Later  on  He  exhorts  them  to  hold  fast  because 
He  is  not  only  coming  at  an  unexpected  moment, 
but  coming  so  quickly,  when  He  does  come,  that 
should  they  be  found  wanting  in  such  a  moment 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  275 

He  would  take  from  them  the  crown  promised 
to  the  faithful. 

In  the  midst  of  further  revelation  given  to 
John  who  is  then  in  Patmos  for  His  sake,  He  de- 
clares abruptly  that  He  is  coming  as  a  thief  and 
warns  those  who  profess  His  name  to  keep  their 
garments  lest  coming  suddenly  He  should  find 
them  sleeping,  snatch  away  their  garments  and 
put  them  to  shame  in  all  their  nakedness. 

In  the  temple  there  were  nightly  guards. 
They  wore  a  special  robe  which  indicated  their 
place  and  function.  The  robe  was  therefore  the 
profession  they  made  as  temple  guards.  They 
had  a  captain  over  them.  He  w^as  liable  in  any 
one  of  the  night  watches  to  come  forth  and  in- 
spect them.  When  he  found  any  one  asleep  upon 
his  post  he  quietly  removed  his  garment.  When 
the  sleeper  awoke  and  went  forth  all  saw  his 
shame. 

As  Christians  we  have  been  put  on  guard.  We 
are  to  keep  the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the 
saints.  We  make  profession  of  the  name  of 
Christ.  The  Lord  who  is  the  Captain  of  our  sal- 
vation may  come  at  any  time.    There  is  no  calen- 


276  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

dar  in  which  His  Coming  is  dated  or  fixed. 
Those  who  have  made  a  profession  of  His  name 
and  nothing  more;  who  have  no  real,  indwell- 
ing, spiritual  life;  who  at  the  most  have  been 
merely  "church  members,"  professors  and  not 
possessors,  will  be  left  behind.  Their  repudia- 
tion will  be  the  stripping  ofif  of  their  garments  of 
profession.  They  will  be  put  to  shame  before  all 
eyes. 

The  Lord's  exhortation  to  hold  on  to  the  gar- 
ment lest  He  should  come  and  snatch  it  awav  is  a 
startling  and  clear  emphasis  of  His  imminency. 

The  hook  of  Revelation  closes  with  the  cli- 
macteric demonstrations  and  proof  that  the  Com- 
ing of  the  Lord  for  the  Church  is  alivays  immi- 
nent. In  the  closing  lines  of  this  book  our  Lord 
gives  His  last  message  to  the  Church. 

He  says  the  Spirit  is  asking  Him  to  come  from 
Heaven. 

He  says  the  Bride  (the  truly  regenerated  por- 
tion of  the  professing  Church)  is  asking  Him 
to  Come. 

He  commands  those  who  have  heard  that  He 
is  to  come  the  Second  time  to  lift  up  the  voice  of 
prayer  and  invite  Him  to  come. 


COMiMG  of  CHRIST  ±T^ 

Then  He  gives  this  last  message  to  the  Church, 
a  startling  and  amazing  message. 

Listen  to  it  well! 

Here  are  the  very  last  words  sent  down  by  the 
risen  Lord  to  the  Church : 

"Surely  I  come  quickly.^' 

By  these  words  He  says  to  the  Church : 

''The  next  thing  is  My  Coming.'* 

"The  thing  for  which  you  are  to  wait,  the 
thing  which  you  are  to  be  expecting,  and  for 
which  you  are  to  be  every  day  ready,  is  the  next 
thing." 

"The  next  thing  for  the  Church,  the  thing  that 
is  always  next  and  nearest  and  therefore  possible 
at  any  moment  is — My  Coming." 

Thus  from  Heaven  with  all  the  authority  of 
infallible  utterance  and  all  the  solemnity  of  last 
words,  the  Risen  Son  of  God  declares  His  Sec- 
ond Coming  is  the  thing  next  and  nearest  to  the 
Church,  and  thus  proclaims  as  headquarters,  as 
indisputable  and  undebatable,  truth  that  His 
Coming  is  imminent  and  will  always  be  immi- 
nent till  He  actually  does  come. 


278  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

The  Bible  therefore  closes  with  the  divinely 
Authorized  doctrine  of — 

The  Imminency  of  the  Second  Coming. 

And  it  so  closes  with  the  preceding  and  warn- 
ing words  of  the  Son  of  God  Himself  that  should 
any  one  seek  to  take  away  this  doctrine  now 
written  into  and  imbedded  in  the  book,  he  will 
do  so  at  the  peril  of  having  his  part  taken  out  of 
the  book  of  life. 

It  is  no  light  thing  to  deny  the  imminency  of 
the  Lord's  Coming. 

He  who  does  so  jauntily  and  carelessly  does  so 
at  fearful  peril. 

He  denies  that  which  the  Lord  declares  lies 
most  weightily  upon  His  own  heart;  and  that  to 
which  He  wishes  the  Church  to  respond  with 
expectant  faith  and  fervent  prayer. 

He  who  denies  imminency  takes  a  risk  con- 
cerning which  the  Lord  has  clearly  warned. 

Let  it  be  repeated  then,  the  Bible  closes  with 
the  doctrine  of — 

The  Imminency  of  the  Second  Coming. 

But — if,  as  some  do  not  hesitate  to  teach,  He 
is  not  to  come  for  a  thousand  years  after  the 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  279 

world  is  converted  why  should  the  Holy  Ghost 
ask  Him  to  come;  why  should  the  Church  in  its 
best  estate  ask  Him  to  come;  why  should  I  or 
any  individual  Christian  pray  for  Him  to  come? 

If  He  cannot  come  till  nineteen  twenty-five  or 
nineteen  fifty,  as  some  teachers  who  are  wise 
above  what  is  written  affirm,  why  should  you  or 
I  pray  for  Him  to  come?  If  certain  fixed  events 
must  take  place  before  He  can  come  for  the 
Church  why  should  any  of  us  insist  that  He 
should  come? 

On  any  other  ground  than  imminency  such 
attitude  and  prayer  would  be  idle  mockery  and 
worthless  mummery. 

Nay!  if  the  language  of  Scripture  does  not 
teach  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  be 
imminent;  if  the  statement  that  He  is  Coming 
as  a  thief;  that  the  hour  is  unknown;  that  He 
will  come  when  the  Church  is  not  expecting 
Him;  if  the  exhortation  to  wait,  to  expect,  to 
watch,  to  be  ready;  if  the  expression,  "we  who 
are  alive  and  remain  unto  the  Coming  of  the 
Lord;"  if  the  clear  and  explicit  statement  of  the 
Lord  Himself,  His  disciples  and  apostles  do  not 


28o  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

mean  imminency  and  are  not  to  be  accepted  by 
the  Church  as  teaching  imminency,  then  lan- 
guage is  meaningless,  words  are  a  confusion,  all 
promise  is  a  lie  and  Scripture,  instead  of  being  a 
revelation,  is  a  misrepresentation,  a  bundle  of 
childish  incoherencies,  or  devil-inspired  fool- 
eries. 

If  Jesus  Christ  and  His  apostles  do  not  teach 
His  imminent  Coming,  then  He  and  His  dis- 
ciples were  the  most  mistaken  of  all  men,  or  of 
all  men  most  guilty  of  insincerity  and  deception. 
If  they  were  mistaken  in  one  respect  they  might 
have  been  mistaken  in  others.  If  they  were  in- 
sincere, they  were  cool  and  predeterminate  de- 
ceivers and  both  the  Lord  and  His  disciples  must 
be  completely  and  forever  set  aside. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  seeing  the  Lord  is 
very  and  essential  truth  itself,  and  what  His  dis- 
ciples and  apostles  said  were  the  inspiration  of 
the  truth  He  gave  them,  no  conclusion  as  to  the 
insincerity  or  intent  of  deception  on  the  part  of 
the  Lord  and  His  disciples  can  be  accepted  for  a 
rnoment.    On  the  contrary,  the  statement  and  ex- 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  2  8  i 

hortation  of  the  Lord  and  His  apostles  must  be 
accepted  as  absolute,  and  infallible  truth. 

The  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  must 
therefore  be  received  as  a  promised  and  always 
imminent  event. 

To  this  fully  proclaimed  and  overwhelmingly 
demonstrated  and  proved  Scriptural  doctrine  of 
imminency,  it  is  objected  that  our  Lord  revealed 
to  Peter  that  he  should  die,  and  some  years  later 
appeared  in  a  vision  to  Paul,  assuring  him  he 
should  go  to  Rome  and  there  testify  in  His  name. 

Since  Peter  was  to  die  before  the  Lord  should 
come,  and  a  future  experience  of  Paul  must  be 
fulfilled  before  the  Lord  could  come,  these  two 
announcements  ought  to  be  sufficient,  so  it  i-s  said, 
to  prove  that  neither  in  Peter's  day  nor  in  Paul's 
day  was  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  imminent. 
This  flat  contradiction,  and  by  the  Lord  Him- 
self, removes  this  doctrine  of  imminency  and  all 
attempts  at  the  construing  of  Christ's  Coming 
as  such  from  the  field,  not  only  of  acceptance,  but 
even  of  consideration. 

The  answer  to  this  subtle  suggestion  is  simple 
and  direct. 


282  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

The  statement  to  Peter  and  the  commission 
to  Paul  contain  within  them  an  unexpressed  but 
well  understood  contingency. 

That  contingency  is,  always,  the  Lord's  Com- 
ing. 

Nor  is  this  begging  the  question  by  mere  asser- 
tion, or  by  impracticable  and  unwarranted  prin- 
ciple of  action.  Go  down  the  streets  of  the  city 
to-morrow.  You  will  find  them  packed  with  the 
thronging  crowds.  Every  man,  every  woman 
there  has  a  plan  or  some  degree  of  intent  and 
purpose.  You  yourselves  here  have  plans  for  to- 
morrow or  next  summer,  or  it  may  be  ten  years 
from  now.  But  you  have  no  guarantee  of  to- 
morrow. You  do  not  know  what  a  day  may 
bring  forth.  Give  you  a  week!  What  do  you 
know  about  a  week?  In  less  than  that  time  you 
may  die,  be  buried  out  of  sight  and  forgotten  by 
the  hurrying  crowd.  David  said  there  was  but 
a  step  betwixt  him  and  death.  He  told  the  truth. 
It  is  true  of  you.  God  has  only  to  withdraw  His 
finger  from  your  pulse,  your  heart  stops,  you  are 
gone  and  all  your  to-morrow's  plans  fall  out  of 
your  dead  hand,  break  to  pieces  and  are  blown 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  283 

away  as  when  so  much  dust  is  blown  by  careless 
winds.  By  every  law  of  your  body,  by  the  sen- 
tence that  is  upon  you,  by  your  helplessness  to 
avoid  the  ruthless  germ,  the  unexpected  blow, 
death  is  always  imminent  for  you  and  human 
kind.  And  yet  plans  for  the  building  of  houses 
are  taken  out,  journeys  are  planned,  trips  over 
mountains  and  across  the  seas.  You  say,  and  peo- 
ple say,  "I  expect  to  go  here  and  go  there.  I  ex- 
pect to  do  this  and  do  that."  All  the  time  the 
contingency  of  death  is  understood.  We  shall  do 
certain  things.  We  shall  go  into  certain  places.' 
We  shall  take  certain  journeys — if  we  do  not  die. 

That  is  understood  all  over  the  world  and  by 
every  human  being. 

That  is  a  contingency  which  remains  as  a  silent 
understood  factor  in  every  detail  and  plan  of 
life. 

This  principle  of  understood  contingency  is 
illustrated'in  the  message  of  the  Lord  to  Jonah 
and  in  the  subsequent  result  of  that  message. 

The  prophet  was  commanded  to  announce  to 
the  idolatrous  city  that  in  forty  days  it  should  be 


i>84  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

destroyed.    Jonah  delivered  the  warning  in  clear 
and  unmistakable  terms,  as  it  is  written: 

"He  cried,  and  said,  Yet  forty  days,  and  Nine- 
veh shall  he  destroyed." 

But  more  than  forty  days  passed  and  Nineveh 
was  not  destroyed. 

Nineveh  was  not  destroyed  because  the  people 
repented  and  turned  to  the  Lord.    And  this  fact 
of  repentance  was  a  contingency  foreseen  and  in- 
wrought as  an  inclusive  part  of  the  Lord's  state 
ment  that  Nineveh  should  be  destroyed. 

Like  the  contingency  of  death,  like  the  con- 
tingency of  repentance  as  noted,  the  Second 
Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  an  abiding 
contingency.  Since  it  is  a  proclaimed  immi- 
nence it  is  always  an  interior  and  understood 
contingency,  lying  back  of,  and  ready  as  a  factor 
in,  every  circumstance,  every  planned  and  pro- 
claimed event.  / 

Peter  v^'ould  die  and  Paul  would  go  to  Rome 
— //  the  Lord  did  not  come: 

This  Coming  was  always  possible.  It  was  pos- 
sible at  the  moment  when  Peter  faced  death.  It 
was  possible  when  Paul  contemplated  Rome. 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  285 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  an  everyday  con- 
tingency— as  much  so  as  death,  and  more  so. 
More  so  because  by  divine  inspiration  the  Apos- 
tle has  said,  "We  shall  not  all  sleep  (die)." 
Because  there  will  be  one  generation  of  Chris- 
tians who  shall  not  die ;  one  generation  of  Chris- 
tians who  shall  continue  to  live  till  the  Lord 
comes. 

Between  us  and  the  appearing  of  Christ  in 
glory  there  are  many  predicted  events,  events 
which  concern  the  Jew  and  the  nations  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  not  the  Church. 

Between  us  and  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  into 
the  air  for  His  Church  there  is  not  a  single  pre- 
dicted event  which  is  not  contingent  on  that 
Coming. 

Because  the  hour  and  the  moment  have  not 
been  set  before  the  Church  what  the  Lord  has 
said  unto  one  of  His  disciples  He  has  said  and  is 
now  saying  to  all: 

"Watch." 

And  every  letter  of  that  word  and  every  accent 
of  the  sincerity  of  the  Son  of  God  spells  and  em- 
phasizes the  all  impressive  and  appealing  word : 

"IMMINENCY." 


2  86  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

III.  As  a  Church  we  are  to  wait  and  be  ready 
for  the  secret  and  imminent  Coming  of  the  Lord. 

The  twofold  motto  of  the  true  Church  of 
Christ  is — 

"To  Serve  and  Wait." 

"Ye  turned  to  God  from  idols,  to  SERVE  the 
living  and  true  God; 

And  TO  WAIT  FOR  HIS  SON  FROM  HEAVEN.''  ( I 
Thessalonians  i  :  9,  10.) 

And  because  we  are  to  serve  and  wait;  be- 
cause the  Lord  may  come  any  hour,  any  moment 
to  take  an  account  of  our  service  and  to  examine 
into* the  sincerity  of  our  waiting,  He  bids  us  to 
be  ready. 

"Therefore  be  ye  also  READY:  for  in  such  an 
hour  as  YE  THINK  NOT,  the  Son  of  man  cometh." 
(Matthew  24:  44.) 

We  are  to  be  ready! 

That  means — 

We  must  make  our  calling  and  election  sure! 

We  can  neither  elect  nor  call  ourselves;  but 
we  can  be  sure  that  we  have  been  called  and 
elected  by  bringing  forth  those  things  which 
"accompany  salvation." 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  287 

We  must  come  out  and  be  separate  from  the 
world. 

The  world  we  are  living  in  is  a  world  under 
judgment,  it  is  a  world  taking  its  breath  and 
thinking  of  its  pleasures  under  a  suspended  sen- 
tence, suspended  only  by  the  grace  of  God;  but 
a  world  for  all  that  steadily  marching  each  hour 
to  certain  doom.  As  Christians  we  should  come 
out  of  it,  come  out  of  it  as  a  system,  nor  touch  the 
unclean  thing  lest  the  stain  of  it  be  on  us  irre- 
vocably. We  should  keep  out  of  it  as  Abraham 
kept  out  of  Sodom,  lest  we  be  mixed  up  with  it 
as  Lot  was  with  Sodom  and  like  Lot  be  saved  at 
last  (if  saved  at  all)  only  so  as  by  fire. 

We  must  establish  character  as  spiritual,  and 
not  fleshly,  people. 

They  that  are  in  the  flesh  cannot  please  God. 

If  we  live  in  the  Spirit  we  are  to  walk  in  the 
Spirit. 

In  this  the  children  of  God  are  to  be  made 
manifest. 

The  children  of  the  flesh  walk  according  to  the 
course  of  this  world  and  God  is  not  in  all  their 
thoughts. 


288  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

The  Christian  is  to  walk  under  spiritual  im- 
pulse, with  outward  and  upward  look,  joying  in 
God  and  ready  with  heart  unafraid  to  meet  the 
Iiord  at  any  turn  in  the  road. 

As  Christians  we  are  to  walk  as  children  of  the 
light  and  children  of  the  day. 

We  are  not  to  sleep  as  others  do.  We  are  to 
watch  and  be  sober.  We  are  to  put  off  the  night 
clothes  and  put  on  the  day  clothes,  even  the 
armour  of  light,  even  the  whole  armour  of  God. 
We  are  to  put  on  the  breast-plate  of  faith  and 
love,  and  for  an  helmet,  the  hope  of  salvation 
(the  ''blessed"  hope  that  the  Lord  may  come  any 
moment  to  "save"  the  bodies  of  the  saints,  raising 
the  dead  and  changing  the  living).  We  are  to 
put  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  make  no  pro- 
vision for  the  flesh  to  fulfill  the  lusts  thereof. 

We  must  be  full  of  service. 

As  Christians  we  are  here  to  serve. 

In  proportion  as  we  serve  here  we  shall  reign 
hereafter. 

We  do  not  belong  to  ourselves.  We  belong  to 
Him  who  bought  and  paid  for  us. 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  2S9 

We  cannot  afford  to  neglect  our  spiritual  gifts 
nor  waste  our  time;  for  both  gifts  and  time  are 
His. 

We  shall  have  to  give  an  account  to  the  Lord 
how  we  have  used  our  time,  whether  for  Him  or 
for  self  first:  how  we  have  used  our  substance, 
whether  for  our  own  pleasure,  or  to  magnify 
His  name. 

It  is  necessary,  indeed,  that  we  should  be 
ready,  because  those  who  are  mere  professors, 
who  are  as  unprepared  as  foolish  virgins,  will  be 
left  behind. 

It  is  necessary  because  the  Coming  of  the  Lord 
for  His  Church  means  the  judgment  seat. 

Are  you  ready  as  a  professed  Christian  to  be 
summoned  any  moment  to  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ? 

At  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ  you  will  either 
receive  a  reward  or  suffer  loss. 

Your  pkce  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  will  de- 
pend on  the  degree  of  your  readiness  when  you 
stand  at  the  judgment  seat  to  give  an  account  of 
yourself  and  not  another. 


290  THE  SECRET  AND  IA4MINENT 

The  imminency  of  our  Lord's  return  is  empha- 
sized by  the  "signs  of  the  times." 

The  signs  of  the  times  primarily  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  Church. 

The  signs  of  the  times  are  related  to  the  Ap- 
pearing of  Christ. 

The  signs  of  the  times  indicate  that  the  day  of 
Christ's  appearing  is  drawing  nigh. 

Signs  in  the  Protestant  Church. 

Every  day  Protestantism  is  losing  its  solidarity 
in  respect  to  the  things  of  God. 

Every  day  there  is  a  new  sect,  a  new  schism,  a 
new  psalm  or  a  new  doctrine. 

More  and  more  every  day  there  is  the  reign  of 
unbelief,  unspirituality  and  undisguised  infi- 
delity. 

Signs  in  the  Romish  Church. 

Steadily  and  with  unbroken  ranks  Rome  is 
marching  on  to  temporal  sovereignty  and  that 
hour  when  she  shall  be  carried  and  sustained  by 
the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Signs  in  the  increase  and  extension  of  travel. 

It  was  foretold  that  in  the  closing  hours  of  this 
age  the  means  of  communication  among  men 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  291 

should  be  multiplied  and  the  multitudes  should 
come  and  go. 

Within  the  last  fifty  years  the  means  of  travel 
have  been  enormously  increased.  We  sail  over 
the  seas  at  railroad  speed.  We  rush  across  the 
land  on  tracks  of  steel  and  with  lightning  im- 
pulse. With  constructions  like  winged  monsters 
we  fly  up  and  through  the  astonished  sky. 
Everybody  travels.  The  whole  world  is  in  com- 
motion, interchanging  and  moving  its  popula- 
tions to  and  fro  till  the  earth  has  become  like  a 
seething  ant-hill.  The  globe  has  become  so  small 
that  time  and  space  are  nullified. 

Signs  in  the  increase  of  human  knowledge. 

It  was  foretold  that  coincidently  with  travel 
knowledge  should  increase. 

Children  are  wiser  to-day  in  some  things  in 
science  and  the  application  of  science  than  men 
of  a  generation  ago.  Everybody  reads,  and  in 
the  morning  newspapers  the  doings  of  a  whole 
world  lie  gathered  and  sifted  in  a  single  para- 
graph. 

Signs  in  the  nations  of  the  once  Roman  empire, 


292  THE  SECRET  AND  IMMINENT 

Amid  the  nations  which  to-day  are  the  frag- 
ments of  the  once  Roman  empire,  the  war  so 
long  threatened,  so  clearly  foreseen  by  some, 
and  so  blindly  unforeseen  and  disbelieved  in  by 
others,  is  on.  The  map  is  changing.  The  ten 
kings  are  coming  and  that  eleventh  king  who  is 
the  Devil's  madman  and  the  man  of  sin. 

The  sign  of  the  clay. 

Clay  represents  the  people  and  the  rule  of  the 
people — Democracy. 

The  prophet  Daniel  foretold  that  clay  (de- 
mocracy) would  be  the  last  material  in  the 
prophetic  image;  that  democracy  would  be  the 
last  form  of  rule  just  before  the  Lord  should 
come  to  set  up  His  kingdom  of  stone.  Democ- 
racy is  here.  It  is  expanding  in  Europe,  in  Asia. 
Out  of  it  will  come  the  ten  kings,  kings  elected 
by  the  people,  democratic  kings. 

The  hour  of  iron  and  clay  is  here. 

Signs  among  the  Jews. 

Whether  they  know  it  or  not,  they  are,  nation- 
ally, homeward  bound;  as  the  exiled  King  is 
about  to  return,  the  exiled  nation  of  itself  is  get- 


COMING  OF  CHRIST  293 

ting  ready  to  meet  Him,  to  repent  at  the  sight 
of  Him  and  own  Him  as  God  and  King. 

And  because  all  these  signs  indicate  infallibly 
that  the  time  is  drawing  nigh  for  Christ  to  ap- 
pear in  glory  to  take  to  Himself  His  great  power 
and  reign;  and  because  He  must  come  secretly 
and  unobserved  of  the  world  for  His  Church 
before  He  can  come  with  her  in  glory,  it  is  evi- 
dent, immensely  and  overwhelmingly  evident 
that  the  imminency  of  His  descent  into  the  upper 
air  and  the  call  to  His  elect  Church  to  meet  Him 
there  is  startlingly  and  arousmgly  emphasized, 
and  should  impel  every  Christian  to  be  awake 
and  ready. 

^' TV  hat  I  say  unto  you,  I  say  unto  all,  WATCH." 

For  you  who  are  unsaved  there  is  only  one 

place  of  shelter,  and  that  is  under  the  blood  of 

the  Cross.    Claim  that  blood  I  pray  you  before 

it  may  be  too  late, 


V 
THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 


The  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ. 

My  theme  to-night  is  the  Judgment  Seat  of 
Christ. 

I  have  selected  eight  texts : 

(Revelation  22:  12.  Romans  14:  lo,  12.  2 
Corinthians  5:10.  i  Corinthians  4:5.  Mat- 
thev;^  25:21.  I  Corinthians  3:  15.  Revelation 
3:11.    James  5 19.) 

Together  these  texts  read: 

"And  behold,  I  come  quickly;  and  my  re- 
ward is  with  me,  to  give  every  man  as  his  work 
shall  be." 

"For  we  shall  all  stand  before  the  judgment 
seat  of  Christ." 

"So  then  every  one  of  us  shall  give  an  account 
of  himself  to  God." 

"That  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done 
in  his  body,  according  to  that  he  hath  done, 
whether  it  be  good  or  bad." 

"Therefore  judge  nothing  before  the  time, 
until  the  Lord  come,  who  both  will  bring  to 
light  the  hidden  things  of  darkness,  and  will 


298  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

make  manifest  the  counsels  of  the  hearts:  and 
then  shall  every  man  have  praise  of  God." 

"Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant; 
thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will 
make  thee  ruler  over  many  things;  enter  thou 
into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 

"If  any  man's  work  (any  Christian's  work) 
shall  be  burned,  he  shall  suffer  loss :  but  he  him- 
self shall  be  saved;  yet  so  as  by  fire." 

"Behold,  I  come  quickly:  hold  that  fast 
which  thou  hast,  that  no  man  take  thy  crown." 

"Behold  the  judge  standeth  at  the  door." 

Before  presenting  the  theme  I  shall  give  as 
briefly  as  possible  an  exposition  of  the  Bible 
doctrine  of  judgment.  I  shall  then  lay  down 
certain  propositions  to  prove  that  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  Is  coming  to  take  the  Church  to 
His  judgment  seat  and  that  Christians  will  there 
be  tried  not  for  life  and  salvation  but  for  work 
and  service  as  Christians.  The  Lord  will  reveal 
Himself  as  judge.  Each  Christian  will  have  to 
render  a  personal  account  of  himself.  Those 
who  have  been  faithful  In  service  will  take  part 
in  the  joy  of  the  Lord.  Those  who  have  failed  to 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  299' 

meet  the  standard  will  suffer  loss.  The  immi- 
nency  of  the  judgment  Is  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  the  Lord  is  represented  standing  before  the 
door  ready  to  judge. 

The  Bible  is  a  book  of  judgments.  These 
judgments  are  manifold  and  recorded  in  fullest 
detail.  Some  are  immediate  and  brief.  There 
are  others  extending  in  their  course  over  a  thou- 
sand years. 

There  are  four  great  and  distinctive  judg- 
ments. 

The  judgment  of  the  cross. 

The  cross  was  neither  the  place  nor  the  act  of 
a  suicide.  It  was  not  a  martyrdom.  It  was 
something  more  than  a  brutal  murder  (though 
murder  and  brutal  it  was) .    It  was  a  judgment. 

It  was  the  judgment  of  God  against  man. 

It  was  God's  judgment  against  man's  nature 
as  well  as  deeds.  It  was  God's  judgment  against 
the  world  considered  as  a  system. 

On  that  cross  God  was  judging  Christ  His 
Son  as  the  representative  of  the  natural  man  and 
his  system  called  the  world. 

From  the  beginning  God  had  been  pursuing 


300         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

sin.  At  the  cross  He  came  up  with  it  and  over- 
took it  in  the  personal  representation  of  it  by 
His  Son. 

He  dealt  with  Him  there  as  very  sin,  as  the 
Great  Criminal  of  the  Universe. 

All  the  essential  as  well  as  governmental  an- 
tagonism of  God  to  sin  swept  forth  and  broke 
like  a  descending  deluge  upon  that  perfect  and 
sinless  Son.  Speaking  anticipatively  of  this  hour 
the  Lord  Himself  by  the  Spirit  through  David 
cries  out: 

''All  thy  waves  and  thy  billows  are  gone  over 
me. 

And  again  through  David  He  cries: 

"Mine  iniquities  (the  iniquities  of  those  whom 
He  represented  and  whose  iniquities  He  made 
His  own)  have  taken  hold  on  me,  so  that  I  am 
not  able  to  look  up ;  they  are  more  than  the  hairs 
of  mine  head." 

By  the  mouth  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  look- 
ing forward  and  entering  into  the  ordained  an- 
guish of  the  cross,  He  pours  forth  the  soul-stir- 
ring and  pathetic  lamentation  of  His  heart: 

"Is  it  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass  by?    be- 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  301 

hold,  and  see  if  there  be  any  sorrow  like  unto 
my  sorrow  which  is  done  unto  me,  wherewith 
the  Lord  (the  Father)  hath  afflicted  me  in  the 
day  of  his  fierce  anger." 

Out  from  the  midst  of  that  black  tempest  of 
wrath,  indignation,  and  judgment  where  He 
suffers  in  the  name  and  as  the  representative  of 
sinful  men,  suddenly  there  comes  the  amazing 
cry: 

"My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 

Off 

mef 

That  uttered  agony  expresses  a  fact  and  fore- 
tells a  condition. 

The  fact  is,  the  sinless,  holy,  perfect  Son  of 
God  and  God  the  Son,  the  Son  who  from  all 
eternity  was  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  the  Son 
who  in  the  flesh  He  assumed  for  the  Father's 
glory,  told  Him  out  and  ceaselessly  magnified 
Him,  that  Son  in  that  hour  upon  the  cross  was 
forsaken  of  the  Father,  the  Father  turned  His 
back  upon'Him,  hid  His  face  from  Him  and  left 
Him  in  the  sunless,  starless  midnight  of  a  com- 
plete and  infinite  repudiation;  withdrew  from 
Him  every  manifestation  of  His  Fatherly  love, 


302         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

left  Him  to  sink  under  and  be  swallowed  up  by 
the  endless,  measureless  billows  of  wrath  in 
which  every  surge  of  every  wave  was  a  deeper 
and  ever  deeper  drowning  agony  of  helpless  and 
hopeless  despair. 

The  condition  foretold  by  that  cry  which  rent 
the  earth,  echoed  to  the  farthest  reach  of  the 
universe  and  pierced  with  pain  the  heart  of  lis- 
tening angels  is  the  condition  of  every  soul  for- 
saken at  last  of  God. 

A  fact  and  a  condition! 

The  fact — that  all  who  have  not  received  the 
salvation  bought  at  this  fearful  price  of  the  cross 
will  be  forsaken. 

The  condition — agony,  agony  uttered  and  ex- 
pressed in  one  eternally  repeated  and  eternally 
unanswered  question,  "My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me?" 

The  aspect  of  the  judgment  of  the  cross  is  two- 
fold. 

Because  the  death  of  Christ  met  the  law,  the 
government  and  the  being  of  God,  it  has  ob- 
tained a  stay  in  proceedings  against  the  indi- 
vidual sinner. 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST         303 

Because  that  cross  is  the  demonstration  of  the 
unimpeachable  righteousness  of  God,  it  has  en- 
abled Him  to  bring  the  world  upon  mercy- 
ground  where  He  can  deal  with  it  in  grace, 
justify  the  ungodly  and  still  be  just.  The  cross 
has  set  Christ  before  the  world  as  the  sacrifice 
for  sin  provided  of  God,  and  as  the  substitute 
the  sinner  is  invited  of  God  to  claim. 

The  moment  any  sinner  be  he  never  so  stained, 
so  sunken  and  hopeless  in  sin  ofifers  up  Christ  on 
the  cross  by  faith  as  his  sacrifice  for  sin  and 
claims  Him  as  his  personal  substitute,  as  having 
taken  his  place  and  suffered  for  Him,  that  mo- 
ment the  Father  accepts  the  death  of  the  cross 
for  the  believing  sinner,  counts  him  to  have 
died  in  the  person  of  His  Son,  counts  the  wrath 
which  fell  upon  the  Son  as  having  fallen  on  the 
believer,  reckons  the  believer's  sins  as  fully  trans- 
ferred to  the  Son  (so  that  He  is  made  sin  for  the 
believer)  reckons  that  the  righteousness  of 
Christ's  obedience  unto  death  is  freely  trans- 
ferred to  the  believer,  sees  the  believer  as  having 
passed  through  the  judgment  with  Christ  on  the 
cross,  justifies  him  before  the  demands  of  the 


304         THE  JUDGAIENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

law  and  accepts  him  as  His  own  very  righteous- 
ness in  His  now  risen,  ascended,  glorified  and 
priestly  Son. 

On  the  basis  of  this  divine  and  exact  justifica- 
tion the  Son  of  God  in  His  office  and  function  as 
the  Second  Adam,  the  New  Head  of  the  race, 
communicates  of  His  own  life  and  nature  to  the 
justified  and  accepted  believer.  That  believer 
has  passed  out  of  death  into  life.  He  is  one  with 
God  in  Christ.  He  is  eternally  saved.  He 
has  been  delivered  and  saved  by  the  judgment 
of  the  cross. 

So  complete,  so  ample  and  so  immediately 
available  is  this  provided  salvation  that  to-night, 
at  this  present  moment  any  individual  sinner 
here  though  he  be  as  black  as  hell's  deepest  dark- 
ness and  no  man  on  earth  be  willing  to  lend  him 
a  hand,  if  he  will  in  child-like  simplicity  take 
God  at  His  Word,  claim  the  crucified  Christ  as 
his  sacrificial  substitute,  say  believingly  in  his 
inmost  soul  as  though  he  talked  face  to  face  with 
God,  "Almighty  and  Holy  Lord,  I  ought  to  be 
eternally  ruined,  swept  out  of  Thy  presence  and 
denied  every  joy,  death,  endless,  hopeless  is  my 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  305 

due;  but  I  claim  Thy  Son  hanging  on  that  cross 
for  such  as  I,  accept  all  the  judgments  that  fell 
on  Him  as  having  fallen  on  me  and  as  having 
satisfied  for  every  claim  against  me.  Count  His 
agony  and  damnation  as  mine  and  as  completely 
and  finally  suffered  there."  Let  any  sinner  here 
say  that,  mean  that  in  honest,  claiming  faith  and 
God  will  accept  you,  accept  you  quicker  than  the 
flash  of  a  second.  He  will  brush  away  every 
cloud  of  condemnation  that  hangs  above  you. 
You  shall  never  stand  at  the  judgment  bar  of 
doom.  You  shall  be  saved  now  and  safe  forever 
more. 

This  is  the  judgment  of  the  cross  and  the  sal- 
vation it  brings. 

The  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ. 

This  is  the  judgment  next  in  order.  I  shall 
speak  of  it  later  on  and  in  full  detail. 

The  third  in  order  is, 

The  Judgment  of  the  Living  Nations. 

This  will  take  place  when  the  Lord  descends 
in  glory  to  the  Mount  of  Olives ;  as  it  is  written : 

"When  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  his 
glory,  and  the  holy  angels  with  him,  then  shall 


3o6  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  glory;  and  before 
him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations"  (Matthew 
25:31-46). 

That  this  throne  will  be  at  Jerusalem  is  the 
declaration  of  the  prophet:  "At  that  time  they 
shall  call  Jerusalem  the  throne  of  the  Lord :  and 
all  the  nations  shall  be  gathered  unto  it"  (Jere- 
miah 3 :  17). 

The  nations  gathered  before  Him  will  be  the 
ten  nations  of  the  revived  Roman  empire  under 
the  last  Kaiser,  the  demonized,  Devil-led  anti- 
Christ. 

The  nations  will  be  living  and  gathered  as 
armies  under  his  leadership,  against  Jerusalem; 
as  it  is  written: 

"I  will  gather  all  nations  against  Jerusalem  to 
battle"  (Zechariah  14:2). 

Under  no  circumstance,  nor  in  any  way  is  it  a 
resurrection  judgment.  There  is  no  thought  nor 
suggestion  of  resurrection  in  the  scene. 

The  basis  of  judgment  will  be  the  treatment 
by  these  nations  of  the  Lord's  brethren  in  the 
flesh — the  Jews. 

After  the  Church  has  been  removed  from  the 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST         307 

earth  the  Lord  will  send  out  elect  and  believing 
Jews  who  will  testify  that  the  Messiah,  the  true 
King  is  coming.  It  will  be  the  Gospel,  not  of 
grace  as  it  is  in  this  hour,  but  the  Gospel  of  the 
Kingdom.  Many  of  these  heralds  will  be  im- 
prisoned, some  of  them  will  suffer  hunger  and 
thirst  and  nakedness.  If  among  the  gathered 
armies  in  this  hour  of  judgment  any  may  be 
found  who  had  dealt  kindly  with  them  as  oc- 
casion offered,  gave  them  food  or  raiment,  took 
them  in,  treated  them  with  hospitality  or  visited 
them  in  their  confinement  and  need,  the  Lord 
will  count  it  as  having  been  rendered  to  Himself 
and  will  permit  such  men  to  remain  and  live  in 
the  kingdom  He  is  about  to  set  up. 

Those  who  have  maltreated  these  Jews  shall 
die  before  the  Lord  even  as  the  rest  in  the  armies 
shall  die.  They  shall  melt  away  while  they 
stand  upon  their  feet;  as  it  is  written: 

"Their  flesh  shall  consume  away  while  they 
stand  upon  their  feet,  and  their  eyes  shall  con- 
sume away  in  their  holes,  and  their  tongue  shall 
consume  away  in  their  mouth"  (Zechariah  14: 

13)- 


3o8         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

The  Judgment  of  the  Great  White  Throne. 

This  will  be  revealed  a  thousand  years  later, 
at  the  end  of  the  Kingdom  on  its  earthly  and 
time  side. 

At  that  judgment  throne  the  Christless  dead 
of  all  ages  shall  be  raised  and  stand;  as  it  is 
written : 

''And  I  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  him 
that  sat  on  it,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and  the 
heaven  fled  away:  and  there  was  found  no  place 
for  them. 

And  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand 
before  God;  and  the  books  were  opened;  and 
another  book  was  opened,  which  is  the  book  of 
life:  and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those 
things  which  were  written  in  the  books,  accord- 
ing to  their  works. 

"And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in 
it;  and  death  and  hell  (hades)  delivered  up  the 
dead  which  were  in  them :  and  they  were  judged 
every  man  according  to  their  works"  (Rev.  20: 

The  dead,  small  and  great,  the  high  and  the 
low,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  king  who  sat  on 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  309 

his  throne  and  the  slave  who  served  in  his  hall, 
the  open  and  out-breaking  sinner  and  the  sinner 
secret  and  unknown,  the  worst  and  the  best — 
Out  of  Christ  shall  be  there. 

They  will  be  judged  according  to  the  standard 
of  God  in  every  age :  by  His  handiwork  in  the 
heavens  as  the  star  written  and  nightly  rebuke 
to  idolaters;  by  the  moral  law  which  was  in- 
tended to  reveal  the  immoral  helplessness  of  man 
and  his  need  of  a  regenerating  God ;  by  the  cere- 
monial law  which  proclaimed  the  way  of  re- 
demption by  blood  and  spelled  the  name  of  a 
Coming  Christ  in  every  offered  sacrifice,  in  the 
death  of  every  substitute  victim;  by  conscience 
which  leads  men  to  accuse  and  excuse  them- 
selves and  thus  on  the  one  side  emphasize  the 
demand  of  the  moral  law  and  on  the  other  to 
confess,  even  unconsciously,  that  they  have  failed 
and  sinned ;  by  the  Gospel  which  invites  men  to 
the  way  of.  salvation  revealed  in  the  cross;  and 
by  their  deeds  recorded  and  indelibly  stamped 
upon  the  soul. 

In  all  that  motley  throng  not  one  shall  be 
saved. 


310         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

All  will  die  a  second  time. 

The  second  death  is,  constitutionally,  the  same 
as  the  first — separation  of  soul  and  body.  As  the 
soul  does  not  cease  to  exist  in  the  first  death 
neither  will  it  cease  to  exist  in  the  second  death. 
The  body  will  be  destroyed  in  fire.  The  soul 
will  continue;  as  there  is  no  resurrection  after 
the  second  death  the  soul  will  continue  in  a  dis- 
embodied state  shut  out  from  God,  a  wandering 
human  derelict  tossed  on  the  measureless  waves 
of  eternity  and  drifting  through  the  darkness  of 
its  endless  night  forever. 

This  is  the  final  and  Great  White  Throne 
judgment  and  its  unspeakable  consequences  to 
all  who  shall  be  called  to  stand  there. 

I  shall  now  consider  and  expound  the  Judg- 
ment Seat  of  Christ.  In  doing  so  I  shall  lay 
down  certain  propositions. 

1.  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  coming  to  trans- 
late the  Church  to  heaven,  take  His  place  upon 
the  Judgment  Seat  and  enter  into  personal  ex- 
amination of  each  Christian. 

2.  At  the  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  the  Chris- 
tian will  not  be  judged  in  respect  to  life  and  sal- 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  311 

vation,  but  exclusively  for  work  and  service  as 
a  Christian. 

3.  At  this  Judgment  Seat  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  will  reveal  Himself  as  very  God,  and 
each  Christian  will  have  to  give  a  faithful  and 
intimate  account  of  himself  or  herself  to  Him. 

4.  The  Christian  who  at  that  Judgment  Seat 
is  judged  and  determined  as  faithful  shall  re- 
ceive a  reward.  He  will  be  permitted  to  share 
in  the  joy  of  the  Lord. 

5.  The  Christian  who  shall  not  be  found  faith- 
ful will  sufifer  loss.  He  cannot  enter  into  the  joy 
of  the  Lord. 

6.  The  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  will  have  a 
two-fold  consummation — the  judgment  of  the 
Christian  and  the  judgment  of  the  nations. 

7.  Christ  as  judge  is  already  imminently  be- 
fore the  door  of  the  Church. 

It  is  evident  no  man  can  preach  from  eight 
texts  and  talk  in  sixthlys  and  seventhlys  and  hope 
to  be  eloquent.  The  most  to  which  it  may  be 
possible  for  him  to  attain  is  to  be  informing  and 
instructive.    I  desire  to  be  both. 

I  shall  therefore  take  up  the  first  proposition: 


312         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

I.  Our  Lor^i  Jesus  Christ  is  Coming  to  trans- 
late the  Church  to  Heaven,  take  His  place  upon 
the  Judgment  Seat  and  enter  into  personal  ex- 
amination of  each  Christian. 

This  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  comes  in  be- 
tween the  judgment  of  the  cross  upon  the  one 
side  and  the  judgment  of  the  nations  upon  the 
other.  It  will  take  place  at  the  Coming  of  the 
Lord  into  the  air  for  His  Church, 

I  have  told  you  in  previous  sermons  that  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  coming  in  glory. 

He  is  coming  in  the  glory  of  the  Father — as 
His  Son. 

He  is  coming  in  the  glory  of  the  angels — as 
their  Master. 

He  is  coming  in  His  own  glory — as  God  the 
Son. 

It  will  be  the  Coming  in  which  He  shall  judge 
the  nations  at  Jerusalem. 

All  the  heavens  shall  be  filled  with  His  glory. 

It  shall  be  as  though  they  were  aflame  with 
His  Majesty. 

The  earth  shall  own  His  Coming.  The  seas 
shall  lift  up  their  voices.    The  concourse  of  on- 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST         313 

looking  worlds  shall  fling  down  their  wreaths  of 
hallelujahs  and  intone  the  exultant  and  trium- 
phant "All  Hail" ;  but  as  already  told  you,  before 
He  comes  in  glory,  before  He  is  visible  to  an  as- 
tonished earth  He  will  come  into  the  upper  air 
for  His  Church  as  suddenly,  as  unwarningly  as 
the  lightning's  flash;  as  secretly,  softly  and  si- 
lently as  a  thief  in  the  dead  of  night.  He  will 
call  up  the  Church  to  meet  Him,  not  the  great, 
outward  professing  body  calling  itself  the 
Church  (so  calling  itself  from  Apostate  Roman- 
ism and  infidelic  Protestantism  through  all  the 
various  ofifshoots,  Unitarianism,  Universalism, 
Emmanuelism,  New  Thought,  and  Christian 
Science) ,  but  those,  rather,  who  are  genuinely  the 
Lord's;  those  who  have  been  made  partakers 
of  the  divine  nature;  who  are  indwelt  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  are  one  in  life  and  purpose  with 
the  Lord.  He  will  call  these.  He  will  raise  the 
dead  who  have  fallen  asleep  in  His  name.  He 
will  transfigure  the  living.  He  will  take  them 
into  the  place  He  went  to  prepare  two  thousand 
years  ago,  into  the  third  heaven,  into  paradise, 
into  the  city  four  square,  the  city  of  the  jasper 


314         THE  JUDGMENTiSEAT  OF  CHRIST 

wall,  the  golden  street,  the  wide-flung  gates  of 
pearl  and  the  river  of  crystal,  the  free  flowing 
river  of  life.  There  He  will  set  up  His  Judg- 
ment Seat  and  require  a  personal  accounting 
from  each  Christian. 

II.  At  the  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  the  Chris- 
tian will  not  he  judged  in  respect  to  life  and  sal- 
vation, hut  exclusively  for  work  and  service  as  a 
Christian. 
'     And  this  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 

Primarily,  because  the  death  of  Christ  has 
met  the  judgment  originally  due  the  believer. 
When  the  believer  claimed  the  death  of  Christ 
as  his  sacrifice  for  sin  and  claimed  Him  as  a 
personal  substitute  the  believer  was  at  once  de- 
livered from  his  standing  and  place  as  a  sinner 
under  doom  of  forfeited  life,  accepted  as  not 
guilty,  justified  and  reckoned  as  righteous  in 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  and  in  Christ  as  his 
actual  righteousness;  that  is  to  say,  he  received 
not  only  an  imputed  but,  imparted  righteousness. 

So  clear  and  clean  is  this  transaction  between 
the  believer  and  a  once-crucified  Christ  that 
were  I  with  other  believers  at  this  moment  sum- 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  315 

moned  to  that  Judgment  Seat,  did  justice  ap- 
pear before  me  with  a  naked  sword  and  in  stern 
and  merciless  tones  say  unto  me  that  my  life 
was  a  sinful  failure,  or  infraction  of  divine  law, 
and  that  I  must  pay  what  I  owed  with  my  life, 
that  rightly  and  fittingly  I  deserved  to  be  bani- 
ished  from  God  and  the  glory  of  His  presence 
forever  I  would  turn  and  point  to  that  great 
crimson  blot  uplifted  on  a  cross  between  two 
thieves  and  I  should  say: 

"O  Justice,  as  much  as  you  know  of  all  the  sin 
in  my  nature,  all  the  sin  I  am  and  all  the  sin  I 
have  done,  I  know  it  too;  but,  Justice,  yonder 
on  the  cross  I  was  judged,  punished,  executed 
and  done  to  death  in  the  person  of  my  substitute, 
the  substitute  whom  the  infinite  and  AlmiglKy 
God  Himself  provided.  I  have  paid  all  the 
debt  I  owe  to  the  law,  the  government  and  the 
being  of  God.  I  have  not  fallen  short  in  one 
jot  or  tittle  of  the  law's  demand.  I  have  paid 
to  the  last  element  of  my  being  every  thing  the 
conscience  of  God  could  require.  God  has  not 
winked  at  any  debt  I  owe  or  have  partially  paid. 
He  has  required  it  all.    He  has  got  it  all,  and  He 


21 6         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

got  it  all  in  my  substitute,  in  every  drop  of  blood 
His  Son,  my  Substitute,  shed  for  me.  The  con- 
science of  God  is  satisfied  concerning  me  and  my 
conscience  is  at  rest  in  the  satisfied  conscience  of 
God." 

I  would  say  that, 

When  I  said  that  Justice  would  sheathe  the 
double-edged  and  gleaming  sword  and  turn 
away. 

No  matter  who  you  are,  worst  or  best  of  men 
the  moment  you  turn  and  claim  the  crucified  Son 
of  God  as  your  sacrificial  substitute  you  are  safe. 
Safe  because  Justice  cannot  demand  payment 
twice,  once  from  your  surety  and  then  from  you. 

But,  that  Christians  cannot  be  judged  for  sal- 
vation at  the  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  is  cor- 
roboratively  demonstrated  and  proved  by  the  im- 
mense and  indisputable  fact  that  when  they  are 
there  it  will  be  in  their  glorified,  immortal 
bodies,  bodies  whose  very  immortality  will  be 
the  seal  they  have  passed  out  of  alienship  and 
condemnation  into  sonship  and  fellowship  with 
God  forever. 

For,  let  me  repeat  what  I  so  often  say,  "im- 


I'HE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  317 

mortality"  does  not  apply  to  the  soul.  There  is 
no  such  thing  correctly  speaking  as  an  "immor- 
tal soul."  No  such  term  can  be  found  in  Holy 
Scripture;  nor  is  such  a  thing  in  the  nature  of 
the  case  possible,  since  the  soul  is  immaterial, 
and  immortality  has  to  do  with  that  which  is 
material.  In  saying  the  soul  is  not  immortal  and 
that  the  word  is  never  so  applied,  it  is  not  in- 
tended to  suggest  even  in  the  most  remote  pos- 
sibility that  the  soul  could  ever  cease  to  exist. 
This  is  not  true.  The  death  of  the  body  does 
not  touch  it,  makes  no  essential  impression  on 
it.  You  may  kill  the  body,  you  cannot  kill  the 
soul.  Once  created  the  soul  continues  and  will 
continue  forever.  The  words  "immortal,"  and 
"immortality"  in  Scripture  are  applied  only  to 
the  body  and  signify  a  deathless,  incorruptible 
body.  A  deathless  and  incorruptible  body  be- 
longs only  to  the  sons  of  God  saved  with  an  ever- 
lasting saltation  and  wholly  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  any  judgment  for  life  or  denth. 

The  Christian  will  not  be  judged  for  salvation 
at  all,  but  for  work  and  service  done  down  here 
as  a  saved  person  in  the  name  of  Christ. 


31  8  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

As  Christians  we  are  not  saved  by  works. 

You  might  be  the  best  person  who  ever  walked 
the  earth.  No  mortal  being  might  be  able  to 
bring  a  charge  against  you.  All  the  shadows 
might  be  under  your  feet.  You  may  be  free 
from  any  arraigning  footstep  of  the  past,  but  if 
you  do  not  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  if  you  do  not 
accept  Him  by  faith  as  your  personal  Substitute 
you  are  lost,  hopelessly  and  forever  lost.  You 
are  lost  under  inherited  nature  of  sin  and  origi- 
nal condemnation  passed  upon  all;  for,  by  one 
man  sin  entered  the  world  and  death  by  sin,  and 
so  death  passed  upon  all  men.  The  worst  man 
on  God's  earth  who  does  not  believe  on  Jesus 
Christ  is  lost  and  the  best  man  on  God's  earth 
who  does  not  believe  on  Jesus  Christ  is  lost. 
Added  to  this,  if  when  you  hear  the  Gospel  you 
do  not  immediately  own  the  estimate  of  God 
concerning  you  and  accept  His  Son  as  your  only 
Saviour,  you  violate  a  command  given  to  all,  be- 
come a  sinner  if  never  before,  and  vitiate  any 
work  no  matter  how  good  you  may  seek  to  offer 
to  the  Lord.  You  cannot  be  saved  by  anything 
you  do.    You  cannot  buy  salvation  by  anything 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  319 

you  give.  It  is  wholly  on  the  basis  of  the  fin- 
ished and  accepted  work  of  the  cross  and  can  be 
received  only  by  simple  and  surrendering  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ.  In  no  wise,  in  any  direction,  nor 
under  any  circumstances  can  you  be  saved  by 
good  works ;  as  it  is  irrevocably  written : 

'^Not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boastf^ 

We  receive  salvation  through  faith  by  and 
because  of  the  unconditional  grace  of  God. 

We  receive  it  as  a  gift,  pure  and  simple. 

We  receive  it  by  faith  and  nothing  more. 

As  saved  persons  we  are  as  much  witnesses  to 
omnipotence  as  the  widespread  creation  about 
us.  God  and  God  alone  could  and  did  save  us. 
If  in  any  fashion  we  respond  to  and  own  Him 
as  our  Lord  and  God,  it  is  because  He  fashioned 
the  way  by  which  we  might  be  brought  into 
union  with  Him  and  has  wrought  the  work 
which  gave  our  souls  the  impetus  toward  Him. 

"It  is  he  that  hath  made  us,  and  not  we  our- 
selves; we  are  his  people,  and  the  sheep  of  his 
pasture." 

And  again  it  is  written: 

"We  are  his  workmanship  created  in  Christ 
Jesus." 


320         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

I  like  to  take  up  that  word  "workmanship," 
and  repeat  it  again  and  again;  for,  that  word 
means,  literally,  "poems." 

Old  Horace  in  his  song  of  the  Alban  hills  and 
the  fair  Sabinian  farm  never  wrote  such  hexa- 
meters as  the  living  Spirit  has  wrought  in  having 
wrought  us.  God  intended  us  who  are  Chris- 
tians to  be  full  of  measured,  syllabic,  songful 
harmony,  the  revelations  of  divinest  grace  and 
mfinite  perfections. 

The  Greek  called  anything  that  had  harmony 
and  unity  of  form  a  poem.  A  statue,  a  work  of 
art  of  any  sort,  a  temple,  a  perfect  piece  of  liter- 
ature even  though  it  were  the  straitest  prose,  was 
a  poem.  The  gold  and  ivory  statue  from  the 
hand  of  Phidias  was  a  poem.  The  Parthenon 
dismantled  and  in  sorrowful  ruin  as  it  is  to-day 
is,  nevertheless,  the  fragment  of  a  poem  in  stone. 

God  created  us  as  Christians  to  be  poems,  to 
be  beautiful  in  all  the  terms  and  forms  of  spir- 
itual life,  of  living  faith  and  in  every  word  and 
thought  to  bear  witness  to  the  hand  of  grace  and 
love  which  has  so  wondrously  and  unerringly 
wrought  us. 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST         32 1 

Let  it  be  remembered!  let  it  never  be  forgot- 
ten! We  have  done  nothing  as  Christians  to  save 
ourselves.  God  has  done  it  all.  The  work  of 
salvation  is  all  His  and  none  of  ours,  and  though 
the  natural  man  lived  the  whitest  life  and  lived 
it  a  thousand  years  without  a  single  mistake 
nothing  he  could  do,  nor  any  character  he  might 
establish  of  morality  and  truth  would  avail  to 
save  him — Salvation  is  not  and  never  can  be 
by  any  work  that  man  can  do. 

But  while  it  is  true  that  we  as  Christians  have 
done  no  work,  nor  could  do  any  that  would  save 
us,  we  have  been  saved  that  we  might  do  good 
works ;   as  it  is  written : 

"Created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works 
which  God  hath  before  ordained  that  we  should 
walk  in  them." 

"What  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?"  was  Paul's 
first  question. 

It  is  typijcal,  suggestive  and  all  revealing. 

We  are  here,  as  Christians,  for  service,  we  are 
here  to  take  the  place  of  witnesses. 

There  are  many  Christians  who  imagine  if 
they  just  live  what  they  call  the  Christian  life 


322  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

and  never  say  a  word  about  Christ  they  are  effi- 
ciently and  satisfactorily  witnessing  for  Him. 

It  is  a  great  and  grievous  mistake. 

Before  all  else  we  must  speak  of  Him. 

Our  lips  must  give  clear  and  vibrant  testi- 
mony concerning  Him.  We  must  tell  about  the 
death  of  the  cross.  We  must  talk  of  the  empty 
grave,  of  a  risen,  ascended  and  Coming  Lord; 
we  must  assure  those  about  us  that  there  is  a 
present  salvation  in  His  name  and  we  must  be 
clear  and  strong  to  say  there  is  none  other  name 
under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby  we 
must  be  saved. 

This  is  what  the  early  disciples  did. 

This  is  what  Paul  did. 

Think  of  him  going  into  the  synagogues 
every  Sabbath  day  and  testifying  to  the  Jews  out 
of  their  own  Scriptures  that  Christ  must  needs 
sufifer,  die  and  be  raised  again  and  that  this  Jesus 
whom  he  preached  unto  them  was  Christ. 

Look  at  him  going  yonder  to  Athens,  the  city 
of  culture,  of  intellectual  power,  of  artistic  re- 
finement, and  not  only  in  the  synagogue  but  in 
the  market  place,  as  Socrates  before  him  hailing 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  323 

the  passers-by,  arresting  their  attention  and  talk- 
ing to  them  of  Jesus  and  the  resurrection  until 
moved  profoundly  the  very  philosophers  hailed 
him  to  the  Areopagus  that  they  might  the  more 
fully  know  of  his  doctrine. 

What  a  record  he  leaves  in  Corinth  where  his 
eyes  even  as  he  spoke  could  look  upon  Parnassus 
and  the  Castalian  Spring;  but  where,  turning 
his  back  upon  any  temptation  to  preach  with 
"enticing  words  of  man's  wisdom,"  he  set  the 
Gospel  of  the  Crucified  before  them  in  "demon- 
stration of  the  Spirit  and  of  power." 

Surely  in  all  history  nothing  is  more  dramatic 
nor  more  appealing  than  the  scene  in  Herod's 
judgment  hall  at  Caesarea  where  with  manacled 
hands  and  guarded  by  Roman  soldiers  he  stands 
before  the  dissolute  king  and  his  beautiful  para- 
mour, speaking  with  unfaltering  lips  and  divine 
passion  to  the  astounded  and  brilliant  throng  of 
that  Christ  of  God  whom  blinded  Jews  had  hung 
upon  a  tree;  whom  God  had  raised  from  the 
dead  and  set  Him  at  His  own  right  hand  in  the 
heaven  far  above  all  principalities  and  powers, 
higher  than  the  heavens  as  the  Redeemer  and 


324         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

Saviour,  not  only  of  Jew  but  Gentile  also,  even 
the  very  Romans  before  him;  and  speaking  in 
such  fashion,  with  such  deep  set  convictions  and 
consciousness  of  truth  that  he  wrenched  from 
the  lips  of  Agrippa  himself  the  involuntary  cry, 
"Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to  be  a  Christian." 

Not  only  Paul,  not  only  the  called  apostles 
spoke,  but  Christians  in  the  quiet  of  private  life. 
Wherever  they  went  and  in  whatsoever  occupa- 
tion engaged  mind  and  heart  were  full  of  the 
wondrous  truth  that  God  had  so  loved  the  world 
He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son  to  die  for 
men.  The  light  from  an  open  grave  so  flashed 
upon  them  that  they  could  not  hide  it  in  the  dark 
of  silence.  Their  hearts  were  so  full  of  the  won- 
der, the  glory  and  the  benediction  of  a  risen 
Lord  that  out  of  the  abundance  thereof  their 
lips  spoke  with  gladness  the  joyful  tidings. 

Testifying  of  Christ  with  the  tongue,  that  is 
the  function  of  the  Christian.  This  dispensation 
began  with  tongues.  Pentecost  was  the  risen 
Lord's  declaration  that  He  would  have  His  dis- 
ciples go  forth  and  tell  the  story  of  His  death 
and  resurrection. 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST         325 

This  is  the  function  of  every  Christian,  to  talk 
of  Christ,  not  the  Christ  who  lived  and  walked 
among  men  and  blessed  them  merely,  but  Christ 
crucified,  Christ  the  sacrifice  for  sin,  Christ  the 
substitute  for  the  sinner,  Christ  risen,  glorified, 
the  present  Saviour  of  every  believing  sinner. 

You  need  not  wait  for  the  preacher  to  tell  it. 
You  can  tell  it.  This  is  your  obligation  as  a  wit- 
ness. 

But  a  witness  must  have  a  character. 

A  witness  whose  character  is  not  good  is  of  no 
avail.  He  may  tell  the  truth,  but  his  testimony 
does  not  count.  Yonder  is  a  man  on  the  witness 
stand.  He  has  told  the  truth,  the  exact  truth  in 
the  case,  nothing  less  and  nothing  more  than  the 
absolute  truth;  but  if  the  attorney  who  is  against 
him  is  keen  enough  he  will  summon  those  who 
will  declare  this  witness  is  not  to  be  believed 
upon  his  oath ;  that  his  reputation  for  dishonesty 
is  widely  known,  he  can  be  bought  and  sold.  Let 
him  do  this  and  the  testimony  of  that  witness 
will  be  ruined,  the  jury  will  pay  no  heed  to  it. 

A  Christian  who  lives  an  inconsistent  life, 
whose  speech  is  full  of  unbelief,  of  doubt  or 


'326  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

worldliness,  carelessness  and  open  sin;  a  Chris- 
tian who  continually  does  things  no  Christian 
ought  to  do  and  who  goes  where  a  faithful  and 
devoted  Christian  ought  never  to  go,  becomes 
sooner  or  later  in  so  far  as  the  world  outside  goes 
a  worthless  witness.  No  matter  how  much  truth 
he  may  tell,  nor  how  well  and  earnestly  he  may 
tell  it,  the  world  will  not  believe  him ;  they  look 
upon  him  as  a  fakir,  a  hypocrite,  an  unworthy 
betrayer  of  the  Lord  whose  name  he  wears. 

In  order  to  be  an  efficient  witness  for  Christ 
so  that  our  testimony  shall  have  a  hearing  and 
the  work  of  the  Spirit  be  unhindered,  we  are 
under  bonds  as  Christians  to  build  up  individual 
character,  a  character  that  shall  verify  what 
we  profess  and  preach. 

And  do  you  think  this  is  an  easy  matter?  an 
easy  thing  in  this  world,  here  in  this  city  where 
ten  thousand  forces  are  seeking  to  drag  you  from 
the  path  of  Christian  consistency  and  faith,  and 
when  the  coordinate  and  resisting  power  of  evil 
and  unbelief  come  from  within  yourself. 

You  never  know  what  depths  of  sin  and  wick- 
edness of  hell  are  in  your  nature  till  you  turn 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  327 

and  start  to  walk  the  path  that  leads  to  God  and 
Christ,  the  path  that  is  paved  with  righteousness 
and  truth,  but  bordered  with  grinning  fiends  or 
smiling  serpents  who  stretch  out  hands  to  help 
the  traitor  in  your  soul;  a  path  in  which  some 
times  the  Devil  meets  you  arrayed  as  an  angel 
of  light  and  in  the  name  of  righteousness  seeks 
to  guide  your  feet  into  the  way  of  enticing  sin. 

I  have  had  earnest  genuine  Christians  come  to 
me  filled  with  heart-aches  and  lamentation,  I 
have  had  them  say  to  me,  "We  never  knew  what 
sinful  and  perverse  natures  we  had  till  we  tried 
to  serve  the  Lord." 

You  cannot  escape  from  that  nature.  Like 
Saint  Anthony  you  may  flee  from  the  city  and 
hide  in  the  cave,  but  sin  and  shame  and  Devil 
and  beautiful  wantonness  will  be  there  in  vision 
of  a  thousand-fold  quickened  imagination  with 
whispered  word  and  pictured  form  to  tempt,  to 
fool  and  lead  you  all  unwillingly  astray. 

I  say  to  you  it  is  a  fight,  a  battle  fierce  in 
which  all  the  powers  of  darkness  will  rise  up 
within  you  and  about  you  to  pull  you  down  and 
away.     Neither  by  tongue  of  orator  nor  pen  of 


328  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

logician  could  the  super-naturalness,  the  abso- 
lute divinity  and  Fleaven  birth  of  Christianity 
be  more  overwhelmingly  and  unanswerably 
demonstrated  than  by  this  upheaval  of  evil  and 
wicked  antagonism  and  this  internal  revolt  of 
human  nature  in  the  regenerated  Child  of 
God.  To  live  the  Christ  life,  the  life  of  spir- 
ituality and  heavenward  aspiration,  to  say  "no" 
to  material  appetite,  to  rebuke  passion,  ofifer  love 
for  hate,  purity  for  impurity  and  unselfishness 
for  selfishness;  in  short,  the  dethronement  of  the 
flesh  and  the  enthronement  of  the  Spirit,  surely 
this  is  not  natural,  it  is  not  of  man  nor  of  earth, 
but  of  Heaven  and  God  alone. 

If  you  are  a  Christian  this  is  the  conflict  into 
which  you  are  called  and  this  is  your  work,  to 
meet  assault  and  resist,  to  go  forward,  fight  the 
good  fight  of  faith  and  to  win.  The  supernatu- 
ral life  must  be  uppermost  in  you;  as  it  is 
written: 

"For  though  we  walk  in  the  flesh,  we  do  not 
war  after  the  flesh: 

"  (For  the  weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  car- 
nal, but  mighty  through  God  to  the  pulling 
down  of  strongholds.) 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  329 

^^Casting  down  imaginations,  and  every  high 
thing  that  exalteth  itself  against  the  knowledge 
of  God,  and  bringing  into  captivity  every 
thought  to  the  obedience  of  Christ." 

This  is  a  part  of  our  function,  if  we  would  be 
faithful  and  truthful  witnesses  for  Christ,  to  so 
live  that  we  win  for  Christ  and  Christ  wins  for 
Himself  In  us  in  the  life  we  live. 

As  Christians  we  are  each  one  of  us  called  to 
be  good  "ministers"  of  Christ.  But  ministering 
in  its  true  sense  means  serving  others  in  the 
name  of  Christ.  We  are  to  minister  to  the 
saints,  to  look  after  the  "household  of  faith,"  to 
visit  the  sick  and  the  fatherless  in  their  affliction, 
to  take  care  of  the  needy,  comfort  the  troubled, 
build  up  and  strengthen  the  faith  of  others. 

We  are  to  give  of  our  substance. 

Do  you  imagine  that  God  prospers  any  of  us 
in  this  world  that  we  may  wholly  spend  our  sub- 
stance on  ourselves?  The  only  time  I  recall 
the  Son  of  God  applied  the  epithet  "fool" 
to  any  one  was  when  he  spoke  of  the  man  who 
laid  up  treasure  for  himself  and  ^^was  not  rich 
toward  God;"    so  He  said  was  every  one  like 


330  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

him  who  made  his  own  life  the  deposit  of  his 
wealth  and  had  nothing  for  God — a  very  fool,  a 
fool  of  fools. 

Again  and  again  God  pours  the  sunshine  of 
prosperity  upon  Christians,  In  spite  of  their 
mistakes,  their  blunders  and  follies  He  com- 
bines ways  and  circumstances  over  which  they 
have  no  control  and  brings  them  unexpected 
comfort  and  blessing,— comfort  and  blessing 
they  never  could  have  obtained  if  left  to  their 
own  efforts.  And  then,  when  after  repeated 
warnings,  a  little  touch  of  disaster  here,  a  loss 
there,  they  still  refuse  to  be  great  hearts  and  lib- 
eral with  Him,  He  causes  their  riches  to  take 
wings  and  fly  away. 

I  have  said  to  you  the  Son  of  God  never  wasted 
a  moment  of  His  time.  He  was  no  idler  finding 
a  place  of  rest  In  some  unoccupied  and  empty 
moment.  No!  I  assure  you,  No.  It  was  there- 
fore not  idleness  nor  loitering  of  curiosity  which 
led  Him  to  take  His  seat  one  day  in  the  temple 
where  He  could  look  at  the  great  chest  with  its 
trumpet-like  mouth  Into  which  the  people  put 
their  contributions,   their  offerings  unto   God. 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  331 

That  He  should  sit  there  and  watch  and  carefully 
note  how  the  people  gave,  the  manner  of  their 
giving;  that  He  should  do  this  so  that  the  record 
of  His  observation  has  been  written  in  all  the 
languages  of  earth,  that  the  rich  gave  of  their 
abundance  wihout  an  element  of  sacrifice  and 
that  a  poor  widow  gave  only  a  mite,  giving  it  out 
of  her  deep  poverty,  but  gave  all  that  she  had; 
and  that  the  mite  in  His  mind  outweighed  in 
moral  value  the  whole  sum  of  what  the  rich  had 
given;  this  stopping  aside  to  view  and  com- 
ment on  the  attitude  of  the  people  to  the  treasury 
in  the  temple  is  the  clearest  and  most  definite 
testimony  He  could  make  of  the  interest  He 
feels  to-day  in  the  spirit  and  manner  in  which 
Christians  hold  their  substance  from  His  hand, 
how  far  they  feel  it  to  be  their  privilege  as  well 
as  obligation  to  deny  themselves  and  be  liberal 
and  rich  with  Him. 

The  maj:ter  of  giving  is  at  bottom  a  moral  and 
spiritual  test. 

Many  Christians  count  it  no  sacrifice  to  give 
largely  for  that  which  gives  them  the  return  of 
satisfaction,  of  personal  comfort  or  ioy.    They 


332  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

spend  it  on  themselves,  considering  self  always 
first,  giving  self  the  benefit  of  lavish  expenditure 
and  economizing  on  God. 

The  Christian  who  refuses  to  give  to  the  Lord, 
who  holds  back  on  the  plea  of  economy  bears  wit- 
ness that  his  heart  is  not  right  with  God  and  that 
his  appreciation  of  the  salvation  which  for  a 
while  robbed  heaven  of  its  glory,  goes  no  greater 
length  than  the  lip  which  professes  what  the 
heart  does  not  feel. 

We  are  here  as  the  stewards  of  God.  We  are 
here  to  give  liberally  and  that  liberality  is  meas- 
ured not  alone  by  the  amount  but  by  the  impulse 
of  the  heart,  the  quickness  of  the  hand  and  the 
spirit  in  which  the  gift  is  made. 

We  are  here  to  win  souls  for  Christ,  to  bring 
them  to  Him  that  He  may  save  them.  As  of  old 
wherever  He  came  they  sought  out  the  sick,  the 
lame,  the  blind,  the  leper  and  the  halt  that  they 
might  but  touch  the  hem  of  His  garment  and  be 
healed,  we  likewise  are  to  seek  the  sin  sick,  the 
spiritually  blind,  the  morally  paralyzed,  the  so- 
cial leper,  those  who  are  undone  and  lost  and 
bring  them  with  the  hands  of  faith  and  prayer 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  333 

and  lay  them  at  His  feet.  We  are  to  speak  the 
simple  word  and  tell  them  to  touch  Him  with 
the  touch  of  faith,  to  believe  and  "only  believe" 
and  they  shall  be  saved. 

We  are  to  speak  this  word  of  hope  and  invita- 
tion on  the  street  corner,  in  the  seat  of  cars,  in 
the  office,  in  the  store,  wherever  and  whenever 
the  door  of  opportunity  is  opened  by  the  Lord. 
A  word  spoken  in  season  how  good  it  Is.  It  is 
like  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver. 

We  are  here  as  Christians  to  do  whatever 
our  hand  finds  to  do.  We  are  to  do  it  with  all 
our  might,  for  the  night  cometh  when  no  man 
can  work.  We  are  here  to  mean  business  for 
God,  and  we  shall  be  examined  at  the  Judgment 
Seat  of  Christ  for  the  way  in  which  we  have  en- 
deavored to  fill  our  mission  as  Christians. 

It  is  for  this  we  shall  appear  at  the  Judg- 
ment Seat  of  Christ. 

III.  At- this  Judgment  Seat  our  Lord  will 
reveal  Himself  as  very  God  and  each  Christian 
will  have  to  give  a  faithful  and  intimate  account 
of  himself  or  herself  to  Him  as  such. 

From  all  eternity  He  was  God,  God  the  Son 


334  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

and  God  the  Word.  From  all  eternity  He  was 
in  the  "form"  of  God,  and  therefore  the  visibil- 
ity, the  outgoing  and  forth  putting  of  God;  so 
that  a  prophet  writes: 

"Whose  goings  forth  have  been  from  of  old, 
from  everlasting." 

He  was  ever  the  utterance  of  the  eternal  si- 
lence as  H^e  had  been  the  revelation  of  the  eter- 
nally unseen.  He  was  the  commanding  energy 
which  vocalized  creation  and  sent  the  universe 
upon  its  course.  By  Him  were  all  things  made, 
and  without  Him,  apart  from  Him,  was  not  one 
thing  made  that  was  made.  He  is  and  was  the 
reason  of  all  thitigs.  By  Him  all  things  were 
and  are  upheld.  In  Him  all  things  subsist.  He 
was  and  is  the  accent  of  Godhead.  The  Father 
originates,  the  Spirit  executes,  but  the  Son  trans- 
lates the  will  and  the  purpose  of  Godhead.  In- 
carnation was  one  of  His  mightiest  acts. 

As  Son  He  took  of  the  seed  of  a  virgin  woman 
and  created  a  human  nature,  a  nature  consisting 
of  spirit,  soul  and  body.  He  united  this  nature 
to  His  unchangeable,  eternal  personality.  Thus 
constituted  He  had  two  natures  distinctly  human 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  335 

and  divine  in  one  body  and  one  person  forever. 
In  this  embodied  humanity  He  walked  the  earth 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  serving  the  Father  un- 
failingly as  His  eternal  Son  and  yet,  always,  as 
actual  man,  real  man  and  true  God. 

He  was  a  man  among  men,  eating  and  drink- 
ing with  publicans  and  sinners,  showing  forth 
His  interest  in  and  compassion  for  men ;  and  yet, 
there  were  times  when  the  deity  in  Him  revealed 
itself  unconsciously  through  the  thin  texture  of 
His  spotless  flesh.  If  as  God  He  lived  in  hu- 
manity, as  God  He  died  in  that  humanity.  By 
virtue  of  His  humanity  as  God  He  was  able  to 
know  and  understand  humanity.  By  virtue  of 
His  humanity  He  was  able  to  taste  the  bitter 
draught  of  death  for  man. 

Only  God  can  atone  to  God;  but  as  the  atone- 
ment is  in  behalf  of  man  it  must  be  by  man. 
Therefore  although  He  was  God  He  became 
man  that  ^through  His  death  as  man  He  might 
atone  as  God  for  man. 

As  God  and  man  He  rose  from  the  dead.  As 
God  and  man  He  ascended  to  heaven.  As  God 
and  man  He  took  His  seat  upon  the  throne 


336  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

where  at  the  Fathers  right  hand  He  had  sat  from 
all  eternity,  clothed  Himself  with  the  glory  He 
had  had  with  Him  before  the  world  was  and  sits 
on  that  throne  to-day  as  the  God  who  is  real  man, 
as  the  man  who  is  true  and  very  God. 

In  the  hour  when  His  Judgment  Seat  is  set 
each  Christian  will  be  summoned  to  meet  Him, 
not  only  as  the  crucified  and  risen  man,  the  Sav- 
iour of  all  who  own  Him,  but  as  living  God  and 
eternal  Judge. 

Each  Christian  must  give  an  account  to  Him. 

You  cannot  give  an  account  for  me. 

I  cannot  give  an  account  for  you. 

You  must  give  an  account  for  yourself. 

I  must  give  an  account  for  myself. 

That  word  "account"  means  '^speech,"  "narra- 


tive," "reason. 


We  will  have  to  make  our  speech  to  Him,  give 
a  narrative  of  our  lives  as  Christians.  We  shall 
have  to  give  a  reason  for  what  we  did  and  what 
we  did  not  do.  We  shall  have  to  tell  Him  why 
we  neglected  His  Holy  Word,  the  exercise  of 
prayer,  the  house  of  God;  and  why  again  and 
again  we  refused  to  meet  the  responsibility  of 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  337 

the  profession  we  made  or  the  service  into  which 
He  called  us. 

Everything  will  come  out  in  that  all  searching 
light. 

The  good  and  the  bad  will  come  out. 

In  that  hour  our  souls  will  be  like  the  wax 
cylinder  of  the  phonograph.  The  slightest  ac- 
cent of  the  voice  is  marked  on  the  cylinder. 
Long  after  the  voice  has  ceased,  after  the  lips 
are  turned  to  dust,  the  very  word  and  the  very 
tone  in  which  it  was  spoken  may  be  reproduced 
and  heard  in  all  its  original  force  and  clearness. 
Every  word  you  have  spoken  in  your  life  is  re- 
corded on  your  soul,  every  deed  and  back  of 
deed  and  word  every  thought,  impulse,  intent 
and  purpose. 

Now  and  then  the  yesterdays  come  back  to 
you,  the  outline  of  a  landscape  through  which 
you  have  passed,  the  breath  from  off  a  mountain 
peak  gleaming  with  the  touch  of  morning  light, 
or  a  draught  of  salt  sea  air  blown  in  by  ocean 
winds,  a  face  that  looks  at  you  across  the  crowd 
and  passes  on,  some  roadway,  some  sylvan  spot 
where  you  drove  or  walked  in  company  with 


338  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

those  you  loved,  a  careless  word  you  spoke  on 
easy  tongue,  some  impulse  that  rose  but  never 
moved  beyond  the  half  veiled  purpose  and  the 
plan — this  is  not  mere  memory,  the  kaleidoscope 
turning  of  the  brain,  but  the  soul  rising  up  to 
witness  for  or  against  itself  as  its  own  indelible 
recorder. 

But  stop!  Note  this!  You  can  take  the  wax 
roll  and  shave  ofif  the  impressions  so  that  they 
may  no  longer  confront  you. 

There  is  a  way  in  which  the  sins  and  failures, 
the  short-comings  and  the  mistakes  of  your  life 
as  a  Christian  may  be  removed  from  your  soul. 
One  way  in  which  these  things  may  not  be 
known,  may  not  confront  you  at  the  Judgment 
Seat  of  Christ,  and  that  way — Confession;  as  it 
is  written: 

"If  we  (Christians)  confess  our  sins,  he  is 
faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to 
cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness." 

Confessed  sins  will  not  appear  at  the  Judg- 
ment Seat  of  Christ. 

Unconfessed  sins  will  be  revealed  and  will 
weigh  the  scales  of  judgment  in  relation  to  our 
work  and  service. 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  339 

O  that  I  could  impress  you  as  Christians  with 
the  necessity  of  confession. 

The  Romanist  goes  to  confession.  He  bares 
all  things.  He  pours  all  out  in  the  ears  of  the 
listening  priest.  The  priest  gives  him  what  he 
claims  to  be  full  and  complete  absolution. 

You  need  to  go  to  confession.  You  need  to 
pour  your  heart  out  into  the  ears  of  the  listening 
priest,  not  in  the  ears  of  any  priest  on  earth,  no 
such  confession  is  warranted  of  God.  The  doc- 
trine is  the  invention  of  man.  The  claim  to  give 
absolution  is  treason  to  God  and  wicked  blas- 
phemy. You  have  a  priest.  That  priest  is  in 
heaven.  He  is  your  risen  Lord  and  Saviour. 
He  is  in  heaven  within  the  veil,  seated  upon  the 
throne  a  high  priest  after  the  order  of  Mel- 
chizedek.  He  is  there  to  act  on  your  behalf. 
This  is  His  great  and  ever  unfinished  work.  The 
work  of  redemption  was  finished,  but  His  work 
as  priest,  as  intercessor  and  advocate  for  His 
Church,  for  individual  Christians  is  unceasing. 
His  ears  are  ever  open  to  hear.  He  is  waiting 
always  to  take  up  our  slightest  petition  and  pre- 
sent it  before  His  Father's  throne.     He  is  anx- 


340         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

ious  to  hear  our  confession.  He  is  ready  to  make 
that  confession  turn  to  our  welfare  and  peace. 

The  mode  and  way  of  this  action  is  very  sim- 
ple. 

Come  to  Him.  Confess  all  that  is  upon  your 
heart  and  soul.  Keep  nothing  back.  Make  no 
attempt  to  exculpate  or  justify  yourself.  Give 
up  the  idea  of  seeking  scapegoats  for  your  own 
responsible  failure.  Tell  the  truth  at  any  cost  to 
your  pride.  Take  sides  with  the  Lord  against 
yourself.  Put  your  confession  free  and  full  into 
His  hands  and  leave  it  there.  He  will  take  that 
confession  and  spread  it  before  the  Father.  He 
will  say  to  the  Father: 

"O  Father,  long  ago  and  anticipatingly  I  died 
for  these  very  sins  here  so  fully  confessed.  The 
confession  bears  witness  of  the  believer's  faith  in 
me,  his  sorrow  over  sin  and  his  desire  to  walk 
in  fellowship  with  Thee.  I  claim  the  forgive- 
ness and  the  cleansing  of  this  believer,  not  as  an 
alien  and  rebel,  but  as  a  stumbling  child  of 
Thine.  I  claim  forgiveness  and  cleansing  in  the 
value  of  my  blood  and  according  to  the  terms  of 
the   everlasting   covenant  wherein   Thou   didst 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  341 

pledge  to  give  them  unto  me  and  fulfill  my  will 
concerning  them." 

The  Father  hears  the  priestly  and  interced- 
ing plea  and  because  He  is  faithful  and  just  to 
His  covenant  He  will  forgive  the  confessing  be- 
liever and  cleanse  him  from  all  unrighteousness, 
as  it  is  written:  "If  we  confess  our  sins,  he  (the 
Father)  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our 
sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness." 

There  is  immense  moral  and  spiritual  value  in 
this  act  of  confession.  As  you  confess^  as  you 
bring  to  light  the  evil  in  you  and  judge  it  with 
the  judgment  of  God  you  will  learn  more  and 
more  to  hate  it  and  turn  away  from  it. 

At  this  Judgment  Seat  all  things  will  be  ad- 
justed by  the  Lord.  All  things  will  be  righted 
and  regulated. 

If  any  one  owes  you  a  debt,  it  will  have  to  be 
acknowledged  and  paid.  If  a  Christian  has 
wronged  you  in  any  fashion,  hurt  you  by  an  idle 
word  or  the  spreading  of  a  false  and  irrespon- 
sible report,  such  an  one  will  have  to  apologize 
to  you  before  high  heaven  and  the  assembled 
host;  and  all  this  is  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  for 


342  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

the  Son  of  God  Himself  has  said  here  in  rela- 
tion to  this  world : 

''If  thou  bring  thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and  there 
rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath  aught  against 
thee, 

"Leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar,  and  go 
thy  way;  first,  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother,  and 
then  come  and  oflfer  thy  gift." 

If  reconciliation  and  adjustment  must  be  made 
here,  how  much  more  in  that  hour  when  every- 
thing is  to  be  settled  and  the  crooked  made 
straight. 

At  that  Judgment  Seat  no  good  thing  you 
have  ever  done  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  for 
His  sake  will  be  forgotten ;  as  it  is  written : 

"Judge  nothing  before  the  time,  until  the  Lord 
come,  who  both  will  bring  to  light  the  hidden 
things  of  darkness,  and  will  make  manifest  the 
counsels  of  the  heart;  and  then  shall  every  man 
have  praise  of  God." 

The  kindly  smile,  the  cup  of  cold  water  in  His 
name,  the  cheery  word  spoken  in  the  fitting  sea- 
son, the  clasp  of  hand  by  which  you  lifted  an- 
other to  firmer  footing  in  the  way  of  faith;  all 
this  will  be  remembered. 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  343 

IV.  The  Christian  who  at  the  Judgment 
Seat  of  Christ  is  judged  and  determined  as  faith- 
ful will  receive  a  reward.  He  will  he  permitted 
to  enter  in  and  share  the  joy  of  the  Lord. 

The  "joy  of  the  Lord"  is  twofold. 

There  is  the  joy  which  enabled  Him  to  endure 
the  cross,  despising  the  shame;  as  it  is  written: 

"Who,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him,  en- 
dured the  cross,  despising  the  shame." 

What  think  you  was  it  which  made  Him  press 
forward  to  Jerusalem  in  that  last  and  awful  pass- 
over  time  when  He  knew  He  was  Himself  to  be 
the  chosen  and  eternal  victim?  What  held  Him 
in  the  heart-break  of  that  last  supper  when  all 
the  shadows  were  deepening  round  Him?  What 
made  Him  bend  His  will  in  Gethsemane  and 
yield  it  wholly  to  the  Father's  claim,  drinking 
the  cup  the  Father  gave  Him  to  the  very  dregs 
even  while  the  blood  sweat  dripped  from  His 
brow?  What  sealed  His  lips  in  the  hour  of  trial 
and  made  Him  withhold  the  power  by  which 
He  had  raised  the  dead  and  stilled  the  storm? 
Why  did  He  not  use  that  power  in  His  own  de- 
fense and  scatter  His  foes  as  by  the  blast  of  a 


344  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

.whirlwind?  What  led  Him  to  restrain  the 
mrayer  for  the  sixty  thousand  tall,  strong-limbed 
[angels  the  Father  was  ready  to  give  Him,  had 
He  but  asked  it?  Why  did  He  hang  in  such 
amazingly  apparent  helplessness  upon  the  cross 
when  with  but  a  word  He  gave  salvation  to  the 
repentant  thief  dying  by  His  side  and  opened 
paradise  to  the  fresh  believing  soul?  Why  did 
He  endure  the  agony,  the  horror,  all  the  untrans- 
latable woe  but  partially  expressed  in  the  uni- 
verse-splitting cry  as  of  one  forsaken?  What 
gave  Him  impulse  and  furnished  Him  strength 
whereby  He  not  only  endured  the  cross,  but  ris- 
ing in  moral  grandeur  and  balanced  conscience 
above  its  shame,  endured  it,  despised  it,  and 
counted  it  as  naught? 

There  is  but  one  answer. 

And  this  is  the  answer — '^The  joy  that  was  set 
before  Him."  The  joy  through  that  agony,  that 
anguish  and  shame  of  becoming  your  Redeemer, 
your  Saviour  and  mine. 

It  must  be  a  joy  no  tongue  can  tell,  no  mind 
conceive — the  joy  of  unlimited  power.  To  be 
able  to  speak  and  by  a  word  create  a  world,  or 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  345 

send  a  lot  of  shining  systems  flashing  on  their 
course ;  but  to  Him  such  a  joy  is  not  comparable 
to  the  joy  of  recreating  a  human  soul,  filling  it 
with  divine  life,  the  divine  nature,  linking  it  to 
the  eternal  Godhead  and  making  that  soul  one 
with  Himself  in  eternal  Sonship  before  the  Fa- 
ther's throne. 

This  is  the  joy  He  saw  might  be  His  on  the 
other  side  of  the  cross,  the  joy  of  taking  the  place 
of  the  First  man,  becoming  the  Second  man  and 
the  new,  the  perfect,  the  eternal  life-giving  Head 
of  the  fallen  race  of  man. 

For  the  sake  of  that  joy  He  endured  the  cross, 
endured  the  agony,  the  hiding  of  the  Father's 
face,  rising  above  all  the  stinging,  smiling,  mock- 
ery of  the  crowd  and  all  the  shame,  the  piercing 
sorrow  of  the  bloody  and  torturing  gibbet. 

He  has  illustrated  this  joy  that  held  Him  fast 
to  the  course  He  chose  and  all  the  horrors  He  at 
last  endured  in  the  wondrous  threefold  parable 
which  He  s'poke. 

He  has  illustrated  it  in  the  shepherd  who  hav- 
ing lost  his  sheep  went  out  to  seek  it,  found  it, 
placed  it  on  his  shoulder,  carried  it  back  to  the 


346  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

fold,  then  called  together  his  neighbors  to  re- 
joice with  him  because  he  had  found  the  wan- 
dering sheep  he  had  mourned  as  lost. 

He  saw  you  as  the  wandering  sheep  out  on  the 
mountains  cold  and  bare,  the  mountains  of  sin 
and  shame.  He  saw  you  wandering  amid  the 
deep  defiles,  He  heard  the  growl  of  the  seeking 
wolves  and  the  hiss  of  the  hooded  serpents  of 
sin;  He  saw  the  precipices,  the  sharp  rocks,  and 
the  bottomless  pit  whither  your  footstep  led  and 
He  came  down  to  seek  you.  The  thought  of 
finding  you,  lifting  you  to  the  shoulder  of  His 
strength  and  bearing  you  home  to  the  Father's 
fold  filled  Him  with  joy,  hastened  His  feet  to 
find  the  cross  and  gave  Him  strength  to  be  nailed 
thereon  for  you. 

He  illustrates  His  joy  in  the  woman  who  lost 
her  piece,  lighted  her  candle,  swept  the  house 
diligently,  found  the  missing  coin,  then  bade  her 
neighbors  come  in  and  rejoice  with  her  because 
that  which  had  been  lost  had  been  found  again. 

He  saw  you  as  a  coin  of  the  realm,  as  an  in- 
finite value  of  God,  stamped  with  His  image, 
but  no  longer  a  medium  of  exchange  or  circula- 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  347 

tlon  for  Him,  fallen  into  some  by  and  hidden 
corner,  a  lost  value,  lost  to  God  and  the  best  uses 
of  yourself.  To  die  and  on  the  basis  of  His 
death  to  found  a  Church,  send  it  out  like  the 
woman  with  the  lighted  candle  of  the  Word  in 
the  energy  of  the  Spirit  and  in  His  name  to  seek 
for  worthful  but  lost  and  helpless  souls,  find 
them  and  make  them  of  infinite  value  to  God 
that  they  might  pass  and  repass  revealing  His 
image  and  be  returned  at  last  to  the  treasury  of 
heaven,  that  was  the  joy  which  held  Him  where 
nails  otherwise  would  have  had  no  power.  This 
was  the  joy  that  despised  the  shame. 

He  illustrates  His  joy  in  the  story  of  that  fa- 
ther whose  son  turned  his  back  upon  the  goodly 
home,  spent  all  he  had  in  riotous  living,  sank 
down  amid  the  swine,  and  lower  than  they, 
came  to  himself,  thought  of  the  father  and  the 
far  away  home,  turned  his  face  thitherward  with 
beating  heajt  and  trembling  step  to  seek  no  better 
place  than  that  of  a  hired  servant  amid  the  serv- 
ants he  once  had  ruled  and  suddenly  beheld  that 
father  coming  to  meet  him  with  outstretched 
arms  and  loving  kiss;    that  father  who  said  so 


348  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

that  all  the  world  in  every  tongue  has  heard  it 
since:  "Bring  hither  the  fatted  calf,  and  kill  it; 
and  let  us  eat  and  be  merry;  for  this  my  son  was 
dead,  and  is  alive  again;  he  was  lost,  and  is 
found." 

You  who  now  believe  were  that  anticipated 
son  He  foresaw.  He  saw  you  as  one  who  had 
turned  his  back  on  the  Father's  house;  as  one 
who  had  no  higher  function  than  to  feed  the 
swine,  the  beast  appetites  and  passions  which 
throng  and  crowd  and  thrust  their  hungry  de- 
mands of  the  flesh  upon  the  soul.  To  die  upon 
the  cross  pay  your  debt  to  justice;  yea,  all  the 
debt  you  owed,  rise  again  and  have  power  to  ar- 
rest you,  awaken  you,  bring  you  to  yourself,  give 
you  vision  of  the  Father's  house  on  high,  make 
your  soul  to  turn  and  seek  the  Father's  face  in 
willingness  to  be  a  servant  amid  all  the  servants 
of  His  will,  and  then  fling  round  you  the  em- 
brace of  the  Father's  love,  bring  you  into  fellow- 
ship with  Him  on  the  basis  of  that  sacrificial 
death  of  the  cross,  clothe  you  with  the  seamless 
robe  of  the  divine  righteousness,  give  you  the 
ring  of  the  endless  life  and  cause  you  to  be  shod 


-     THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  349 

with  the  preparation  of  the  Gospel  of  peace, 
this  was  the  joy  He  would  drink  out  of  the 
dregs  of  agony  the  cross  had  in  store  for  Him. 

Never  forget  it!  the  joy  set  before  Him,  the 
joy  which  made  Him  endure  the  cross  and  de- 
spise the  shame  was  the  joy  of  being  your  Sav- 
iour and  mine. 

But  there  is  yet  another  and  climacteric  joy  set 
before  Him,  the  joy  which  has  enabled  Him  to 
endure  with  patience  His  exile  to  the  Father's 
throne.  That  joy  is  announced  in  the  Father's 
promise. 

After  His  resurrection  and  ascension  to  the 
throne  the  Father  bade  Him  sit  there  till  He 
should  make  His  enemies  His  footstool. 

He  promised  Him  He  should  come  back  to 
this  world  and  sit  upon  His  holy  hill  of  Zion  as 
King  of  the  Jews  as  it  is  written  in  the  second 
psalm: 

"Yet  have  J  set  (that  Is,  I  will  set)  my  King 
upon  my  holy  hill  of  Zion." 

He  was  crucified  as  the  King  of  the  Jews.  He 
will  come  back  to  be  enthroned  as  the  King  of 
the  Jews. 


350  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

Not  only  of  the  Jews  but  of  the  Gentiles;  as 
again  it  is  written  in  that  second  psalm : 

"Ask  of  me,  and  I  will  give  thee  the  heathen 
(Gentiles)  for  thine  inheritance,  and  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession." 

Consider  what  a  joy  it  will  be  for  Him  to  come 
back  as  the  King  of  the  Jews! 

Recall  that  scene  in  Herod's  guard  room 
where  they  threw  an  old  cloak  upon  His  shoul- 
ders, a  soldier's  used  and  soiled  cloak,  bowed 
the  knee  before  Him,  mocked,  spit  upon  and 
abused  Him.  Think  of  the  people.  His  own 
people  whom  He  came  to  save,  repudiating 
Him,  sending  Him  to  the  cross,  clamoring  for 
a  robber  and  honoring  him  in  His  stead. 

Think  of  that  writing  above  His  head :  "This 
is  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  King  of  the  Jews,"  and 
placed  there  not  for  coronation  but  as  accusation. 

What  a  joy  will  it  be  for  Him  to  come  with 
all  His  cohorts  of  splendor  to  make  that  writing 
not  a  shame  but  glory,  not  an  accusation  but  a 
verification. 

What  an  hour  that  will  be  when  the  elect  and 
repentant  Jews  delivered  from  the  tyranny  and 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  351 

terror  of  the  wild  beast  King  and  His  merci- 
less scourging  shall  look  upon  Him  whom  their 
fathers  pierced  and  own  Him  as  Messiah^  Lord 
and  God,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  their  own 
anointed  King.  What  a  joy  it  will  be  to  Him 
who  was  whipped  and  gibed  and  hung  on  a  rob- 
ber's cross  to  come  back,  not  only  as  the  Son  and 
heir  of  David's  throne,  but  as  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords,  the  God  of  all  the  earth. 

What  joy  it  shall  be  to  enthrone  Himself  at 
Jerusalem,  to  sit  on  Mount  Zion  and  for  a  thou- 
sand golden  years  to  administer  righteousness 
and  truth  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father,  and  to 
the  far-reaching  and  measureless  blessing  of 
men.  This  will  be  the  consummate  joy  of  the 
Lord. 

The  Christian  who  has  passed  his  civil  service 
examination  at  the  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  will 
be  invited  to  share  that  joy. 

The  Lord  will  say  to  him: 

"Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant:  thou 
hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make 
thee  ruler  over  many  things;  enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord.'' 


352         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

Here  as  plainly  as  language  can  put  it,  the 
Lord's  power  and  authority  to  appoint  rulers  on 
the  earth  is  His  joy.  That  appointment  of  ruler- 
ship  is  the  declaration  that  He  is  acting  in  His 
office  as  King;  that  the  region  and  sphere  of  ap- 
pointment is  the  kingdom.  Acting  as  King  on 
the  earth  then  is  His  joy. 

The  faithful  Christian  will  share  this  joy  by 
being  appointed  a  ruler  in  the  earthly  or  mil- 
lennial kingdom. 

Thus  it  is  evident  that  rulership  with  Christ 
on  earth  is  not  a  common  but  restrictive  privi- 
lege, restricted  to  those  who  are  faithful,  to 
whom  the  Lord  can  say  specifically,  "Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant." 

One  of  the  joys  in  that  joyful  sharing  of  the 
joy  of  Christ  will  be  the  privilege,  not  only  of 
rulership,  but  sitting  at  the  feet  of  the  King  Him- 
self, and  from  time  to  time,  listening  as  He  shall 
unfold  the  written  Word  which  long  ago,  He 
Himself  as  the  living  Word,  inspired ;  for  in  let- 
ters of  light  I  read  this  rare  and  wondrous  af- 
firmation: 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days,  that 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  353 

the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  estab- 
lished in  the  top  of  the  mountains,  and  shall  be 
exalted  above  the  hills;  and  all  the  nations  shall 
flow  into  it. 

"And  many  people  shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye, 
let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the 
house  of  the  God  of  Jacob;  and  He  will  teach 
us  of  His  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  His  paths : 
for  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  law,  and  the 
word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusalem/^ 

Who  can  measure  the  joy  of  listening  to  His 
divine  and  human  voice  as  He  shall  unfold  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  and  tell  the  story  of  that 
wide  sweep  of  ages  between  the  first  and  second 
verses;  that  hour  when  with  His  own  spoken 
Word,  and  as  Himself  the  Word,  He  set  the  heav- 
ens and  the  earth  in  their  course;  that  mysteri- 
ous moment  when  the  cataclysmic  crash  came 
which  flung  the  earth  from  its  original  orbit  out 
of  the  original  sunlight  into  the  dark  and  form- 
less void  of  chaos,  the  resurrection  of  the  earth 
out  of  the  woful  night  and  watery  waste,  the 
six  days  remaking  of  it  as  the  dwelling  place  of 
man  and  the  long  ordained  arena  of  redemption, 
the  revelation  of  the  love  of  God. 


354  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

What  a  joy  to  have  Him  take  up  the  book  of 
Daniel,  verify  each  written  prophetic  word,  the 
deeps  of  meaning  in  each  impacted  symbol,  and 
on  the  dust  of  broken  empires  make  manifest 
how  through  all  the  tortuous  and  bloody  cycles 
of  their  history  His  hand  was  steadily  guiding 
the  march  of  events  till  they  culminated  in  that 
kingdom  of  stone  of  which  He  Himself  is  basic 
rock  and  apex. 

What  joy  to  hear  Him  expound  the  Gospel  of 
John  and  from  every  gleaming  splendor  of  His 
now  fully  manifested  deity  justify  the  opening 
words  of  that  Gospel:  ''In  the  beginning  was 
the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  God 
was  the  ff^ord;"  hear  Him  affirm  the  truth  of 
John  in  that  wide  open  and  bottomless  phrase: 
*'No  man  hath  seen  God  (the  Father)  at  any 
time,  the  only  begotten  God  (true  rendering) 
which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath 
declared  Him." 

What  a  moment  when  He  shall  fully  reveal 
the  book  of  Revelation,  the  apocalyptic  radiance 
of  fulfilled  and  still  fulfilling  glories. 

O  the  joy  of  walking  with  Him  through  the 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  355 

sacred  ways  of  Palestine,  sitting  with  Him  as  did 
the  disciples  of  old,  and  with  those  very  disciples 
again  upon  the  brow  of  Olivet,  listening  while 
He  unbares  the  deeper  secrets  of  the  cross,  the 
countless  eternity,  the  mysteries  and  the  endless 
wonders  of  redeeming  grace. 

Think  of  it!  The  joy  of  being  fed  with  knowl- 
edge, of  having  veil  after  veil  of  mystery  taken 
away  and  finding  the  reason,  the  wisdom,  the 
love  and  the  glory  in  all  the  providences  of  God, 
seeing  the  good  always  behind  the  evil,  finding 
the  straightness,  the  directness  and  the  perpen- 
dicularity of  the  divine  dealings  behind  all  the 
complications  of  the  wrath  of  man,  the  ingenious 
malignancy  of  the  devil  and  the  apparent  contra- 
dictions of  the  way. 

Surely  this  will  be  entering  into  His  joy  and 
sharing  it.  Beyond  question  this  will  be  rich 
and  royal  reward,  to  reign  as  kings,  to  rule  with 
Him,  to  take  the  place  of  associate  and  inter- 
ceding pries'ts,  to  be  the  chamberlains  who  shall 
attain  access  for  others  to  His  welcoming  and 
enriching  presence. 

Ah  I  to  be  kings  who  shall  rule  creation's  ways 


356         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

and  priests  who  shall  lead  and  intone  creation's 
praise;  to  be  the  sharers  of  His  earthly  king- 
dom and  to  rejoice  with  joy  exceeding  in  His 

joy-  ? 

V.  The  Christian  who  shall  not  he  found 
faithful  ivill  suffer  loss.  He  cannot  enter  into 
the  joy  of  the  Lord. 

Those  who  have  preached  and  by  their  preach- 
ing have  built  nothing  better  than  wood,  hay 
and  stubble  on  the  foundation  of  Christ  will  be 
judged  as  unfaithful  stewards  of  the  Word  of 
God. 

At  that  Judgment  Seat  the  preachers  who  have 
been  willing  to  make  the  Church  a  rubbish  heap 
will  be  fully  revealed.  Men  who  have  mixed 
law  and  grace,  the  righteousness  of  God  with 
the  righteousness  of  man;  who  have  preached 
prohibition,  socialism  and  state  legislation;  like 
Lot,  have  endeavored  to  clean  up  Sodom,  and 
like  Lot  in  Sodom  have  vexed  their  righteous 
but  unspiritual  souls  with  their  daily  and  mani- 
fested inability  to  keep  it  clean. 

O  w^hat  rubbish  heaps  some  churches  are! 

Everything  under  heaven  preached  but  the 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST         357 

Gospel  of  the  Grace  of  God.  The  life  of  Christ 
proclaimed,  but  not  His  death,  evolution  from 
below  instead  of  regeneration  from  above,  the 
first  birth  and  not  the  second,  appeals  made  to 
the  inhering,  self-redemptive  powers  in  man  in- 
stead of  exhortation  to  claim  redeeming  blood. 
Everywhere  the  watchword,  "Toleration."  The 
right  to  think  and  go  as  you  please  in  matters  of 
religion;  modern  thought  and  not  first  century 
thought,  the  word  of  man  and  not  the  Word  of 
God,  goodness  taught  and  not  Godness ;  the  pres- 
ent life  the  only  life  worth  while,  one  religion  as 
good  as  another:  Romanism  which  teaches  an 
earthly  priesthood  and  a  continually  sacrificed 
Christ  as  good  as  Protestantism  which  teaches 
one  sacrifice  once  for  all  and  one  priest  alone  and 
in  heaven;  Judaism  which  denies  the  deity  of 
Christ  and  looks  upon  Him  as  a  cool  deceiver  or 
a  weakling  failure,  and  Christian  Science  which 
denies  the  Trinity,  the  personality  of  God,  the 
fact  of  sin  and  death  and  owns  Jesus  simply  as 
an  idea  and  no  longer  a  fact,  just  as  good  as  any 
other  system  that  makes  use  of  the  name  of  God; 
Christ  Himself  owned  as  a  moralist,  at  best  a  re- 


358  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

former  and  never  a  personal  and  only  Saviour  of 
men,  the  Bible  not  the  exclusive  Word  of  God 
and  by  no  means  the  only  revelation  of  God  to 
man. 

O  the  rubbish  heaps  some  churches  are! 

All  sorts  of  means  used  to  draw  the  people, 
street  cleaners  with  their  band,  base  ball  experts 
to  talk  on  the  benefit  of  physical  sobriety,  regu- 
lar habits  and  cleanliness,  lectures,  moving  show 
pictures,  ice  cream  suppers,  dramatic  entertain- 
ments, social  clubs,  military  companies,  minstrel 
shows,  burlesques  and  dancing. 

All  this  is  wood,  hay  and  stubble. 

Like  wood,  hay  and  stubble,  it  is  big,  bulks 
greatly,  gives  the  idea  of  being  busy,  occupied, 
doing  things;  but  like  wood,  hay  and  stubble, 
the  bigger  the  bulk  the  bigger  the  bonfire  it  will 
make;  for  all  such  religious  rubbish  will  be 
burned  away  on  the  day  of  the  Lord.  Not  only 
so,  multitudes  of  those  who  are  brought  into  the 
churches,  who  become  its  members  give  no  sign 
of  a  change  of  life,  give  no  evidence  of  spiritual 
income  and  spiritual  outgo,  who  are  in  reality  as 
lifeless  as  wood,  hay  and  stubble;    who  have 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  359 

swelled  the  list  of  "conversions"  and  have  made 
a  good  numerical  showing  in  annual  reports, 
these  will  be  shown  on  the  day  of  the  Lord  as 
elements  of  churchly  rubbish,  and  witness  of  the 
worthlessness  of  the  work  of  those  who  "added" 
them  to  the  Church. 

The  preachers  who  in  spite  of  all  the  blind- 
ness and  blundering  of  their  wood,  hay  and  stub- 
ble work  have  been  really  regenerated,  have  had 
some  element  of  divine  life,  the  foolish  and  de- 
ceived workers  who  have  mistaken  quantity  for 
quality,  will  in  that  hour  when  they  stand  at  the 
Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  be  accused  of  unfaith-' 
fulness  to  their  trust  and  shall  suffer  loss.  None 
of  these  shall  enter  into  and  share  the  joy  of  the 
Lord.  They  cannot  take  part  in  the  kingdom  on 
the  earth. 

Christians  who  have  refused  to  give  of  their 
substance;  who  have  been  willing  to  spend  it  on 
themselves,  but  not  on  God;  that  class  of  Chris- 
tians who  are  always  revolting  against  "expense" 
in  the  Church  and  Judas-like  are  continually 
talking  of  "this  waste,"  these  shall  miss  the  joy 
of  the  Lord. 


360         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

Christians  who  live  notoriously  and  intention- 
ally inconsistent  lives;  who  openly  dishonor  the 
name  of  Christ;  who  are  impervious  to  spiritual 
appeal;  who  claim  the  assurance  of  salvation; 
who  no  doubt  really  believe,  but  refuse  to  bring 
forth  the  things  which  accompany  salvation, 
these  shall  suffer  loss.  Amiable  Christians,  de- 
cent Christians,  Christians  who  always  go  to 
church,  but  never  do  anything  for  Christ;  who 
sit  still  on  the  cushioned  seats  of  easy  security 
and  repeat  to  themselves  as  complacent  justifica- 
tion, "not  of  works  lest  any  man  should  boast" — 

Think  of  it!  Redeemed  by  blood,  made  par- 
takers of  the  divine  nature,  indwelt  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  linked  up  to  a  risen  Christ,  claiming  all 
the  guarantees  of  salvation;  and  yet,  never  do- 
ing anything  for  Him  who  has  done  all  things 
for  them. 

O  the  pitiableness  of  it.  Redeemed  and  doing 
nothing  for  Christ. 

And  these  all  shall  suffer  loss,  the  loss  of  what 
they  might  have  had.  They  will  miss  the  "well 
done."  They  cannot  enter  into  the  joy  of  the 
Lord.    They  will  have  no  part  in  the  kingdom  of 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  361 

the  thousand  years  on  earth.  During  the  thou- 
sand years  they  will  be  in  the  kingdom,  but  in 
heaven,  in  the  Holy  City,  and  not  on  earth. 

VI.  The  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  will  have 
a  twofold  consummation. 

It  will  continue  for  three  years  and  a  half  and 
then  Satan,  the  Devil,  will  be  cast  out  of  heaven. 

There  need  be  no  astonishment  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  the  Devil  being  in  heaven.  He  is  the 
prince  of  the  powers  of  the  air,  the  head  of  the 
hierarchy  of  evil  spirits  and  angels  who  occupy 
the  dark  void  surrounding  the  earth. 

That  Satan  has  access  to  the  presence  of  the 
Lord  is  revealed  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  book 
of  Job.  He  comes  into  the  presence  of  the  Lord 
and  accuses  Job.  This  is  his  role.  He  is  both  an 
accuser  and  a  slanderer.  He  is  prosecuting  at- 
torney for  righteousness.  He  will  be  there  to  ac- 
cuse the  brethren.  Then  will  be  seen  the  ad- 
vantage of.  confessing  to  the  Lord  down  here. 
Whatever  has  been  so  confessed  down  here  can- 
not appear  up  there.  But  Satan  will  bring  to 
light  every  unconfessed  sin  and  failure  on  the 
part  of  the  Christian.     Those  who  have  been 


362  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

faithful,  against  whom  he  can  bring  no  accusa- 
tion will  overcome  him  by  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb  and  the  word  of  their  testimony.  They 
will  meet  the  charges  he  shall  make  by  an  appeal 
to  the  redeeming  and  cleansing  power  of  the 
blood  and  to  the  record  of  their  faithfulness  in 
testimony  when  here.  He  will  be  finally  cast 
out  into  the  earth  and  his  angels  with  him;  as  it 
is  written : 

"And  the  great  dragon  was  cast  out,  that  old 
serpent,  called  the  Devil  and  Satan,  which  de- 
ceiveth  the  whole  world ;  he  was  cast  out  into  the 
earth,  and  his  angels  were  cast  out  with  him,  and 
I  heard  a  loud  voice  saying  in  heaven.  Now  is 
come  salvation,  and  strength,  and  the  kingdom 
of  our  God,  and  the  power  of  His  Christ;  for  the 
accuser  of  our  brethren  is  cast  down,  which  ac- 
cused them  before  our  Lord  day  and  night. 

"And  they  overcame  him  by  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb,  and  by  the  word  of  their  testimony." 

That  the  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  will  last 
three  years  and  a  half  and  that  the  casting  out  of 
Satan  is  the  terminal  point  of  the  Judgment  Seat 
of  Christ  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  Anti- 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  363 

Christ,  the  man  of  sin  who  will  be  reigning  on 
the  earth  after  the  Lord  has  translated  the 
Church  to  heaven  and  set  up  the  Judgment  Seat, 
will  enter  into  a  covenant  or  alliance  with  the 
Jews  in  Palestine  for  seven  years  (called  in 
the  prophecy  of  Daniel  "one  week";  that  is, 
a  period  of  seven,  and  by  the  context  sig- 
nifying years).  In  the  midst  of  the  seven  years 
(that  is  at  the  end  of  three  years  and  a  half)  he 
breaks  his  alliance  with  the  Jews;  now  it  is  at 
this  very  point  of  breakage  he  exalts  himself  with 
greatest  power.  An  examination  of  Revelation 
thirteenth  will  show  that  it  is  after  Satan  has 
been  cast  out  that  he  himself  gives  all  his  own 
power  to  the  "beast,"  or  Antichrist.  The  casting 
of  Satan  out  of  heaven  then  is  coincident  with 
the  exaltation  to  power  of  the  man  of  sin ;  and 
as  this  exaltation  takes  place  in  the  midst  of  the 
week  or  at  the  end  of  three  years  and  a  half  and 
during  that  three  years  and  a  half  Satan  is  rep- 
resented in  'heaven  accusing  the  brethren,  and 
this  accusation  implies  and  includes  a  trial  be- 
fore a  judge,  then  evidently  during  that  three 
years  and  a  half  the  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  has 


364         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

been  in  session;  that  long  at  least,  and  as  much 
longer  as  may  be  the  lapse  of  time  between  the 
moment  when  the  Church  is  taken  up  and  the 
Antichrist  enters  into  his  seven  years  covenant 
with  apostate  Jews. 

During  the  final  three  years  and  a  half  on 
earth  Satan  will  sway  the  whole  world  through 
this  man  of  sin,  the  son  of  Perdition,  the  world's 
last  Kaiser,  the  Antichrist. 

Then  will  come  the  climax.  Christ  and  His 
translated  and  adjudged  saints  will  descend  in 
manifested  glory  to  the  Mount  of  Olives  to  exe- 
cute judgment  on  the  kingdom  of  Satan,  over- 
throw iniquity  and  set  up  the  reign  and  rule  of 
righteousness. 

All  the  saints  will  come  with  Him;  for  it  is 
written: 

"This  honor  have  all  his  saints." 

But,  after  the  judgment  of  the  nations,  those 
who  are  not  to  share  in  the  earthly  kingdom  will, 
and  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  return  to  the  upper 
city  and  remain  there  during  the  thousand  years. 

Rulership  and  participation  with  Christ  dur- 
ing the  thousand  years  on  earth  is  wholly  and 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  365 

altogether  a  matter  of  reward.  It  is  for  those  to 
whom  at  the  Judgment  Seat  our  Lord  shall  say: 

"Well  done  thou  good  and  faithful  servant." 

VII.  Christ  as  Judge  is  already  imminently 
before  the  door  of  the  Church. 

This  is  the  Divine  and  Holy  Ghost  way  of 
saying  that  the  coming  of  Christ  for  His  Church 
is  imminent. 

So  imminent  is  it  that  the  Holy  Ghost  says  He 
is  before  the  door.  If  the  door  should  be  opened 
the  Church  would  find  herself  face  to  face  with 
Him,  not  only  as  her  Saviour  but  as  her  righteous 
Judge. 

And  this  is  the  announced  order;  as  it  is  writ- 
ten: 

"The  time  is  come  that  judgment  must  begin 
at  the  house  of  God." 

While  many  predicted  events  are  between  us 
and  the  appearing  of  Christ  in  glory,  many 
things  which  form  the  burden  of  prophetic  warn- 
ing and  find  their  amplified  accent  in  our  Lord's 
discourse  and  are  uttered  and  illuminated  for  us 
in  the  parenthetic  chapters  of  Revelation,  those 
terrible  chapters  which  extend  from  the  sixth  to 


366         THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

the  nineteenth,  between  us  and  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  for  the  Church,  there  is  not  a  single  fore- 
announced  event. 

It  may  be  at  any  hour  and  therefore  at  any 
moment. 

He  has  only  to  speak,  the  door  will  be  opened. 

According  to  the  Word  of  God^  the  testimony 
of  the  Son  of  God  and  the  corroborative  and  un- 
broken testimony  of  the  Apostles,  there  is  not  the 
thickness  of  tissue  paper  between  us  ivho  are 
Christians  and  the  Judgment  Seat  of  Christ. 

In  the  light  of  this  tremendous  judicial  immi- 
nency  the  corollary  of  the  present  opportunity  is 
immensely  self-evident. 

As  Christians  we  ought  to  arouse. 

We  ought  to  make  our  calling  and  election 
sure. 

What  an  unspeakable  experience  it  would  be 
if  before  morning  we  should  be  summoned  to  the 
Judgment  Seat  of  Christ  and  learn  sooner  or 
later  that  we  could  not  pass  the  examination  with 
honor  to  ourselves  nor  glory  to  the  Lord  I 

The  Apostle  John  speaks  of  being  put  to  shame 
in  that  hour. 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  367 

O  what  disaster,  what  shame  if  for  the  sake  of 
a  dance,  a  game  of  cards,  a  glass  of  wine,  a  night 
in  the  theatre;  what  a  disaster  if  for  the  sake 
of  self  pleasure,  self  gratification  of  any  sort,  an 
unwillingness  to  be  strong  and  steadfast  and  to 
stand  for  truth,  a  compromise  and  failure  by  the 
way;  what  disaster,  what  indescribable  shame  If 
we  should  find  we  were  shut  out  from  that  gold- 
en hour,  tbat  splendid  sweep  of  a  thousand  heav- 
en illuminated  years. 

It  is  time  to  awake  and  let  go  the  grip  upon 
the  things  of  earth;  time  to  let  the  vision  of 
heaven  and  heavenly  things  enter  in  and  possess 
the  soul;  time  to  let  go  the  handfuls  of  dust  we 
call  our  plans,  plans  already  slipping  through 
our  loosening  fingers  and  falling  into  the  ever 
opening  trench  men  call  a  grave ;  time  to  realize 
God  in  our  daily  experience,  be  as  conscious  of 
God  as  we  are  of  the  winds  that  blow  or  the 
heat  that  burns,  or  the  circumstance  that  dis- 
turbs, hinders  or  makes  us  turn;  time  to  arouse 
because  should  the  voice  call  and  the  hand  of 
power  lift  us  to  the  judgment  seat  we  should  be 
ready  without  hesitation  and  wholly  unafraid  to 
answer  and  say: 


368  THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST 

"Here  Lord  am  I." 

To  you  who  are  unsaved  listen  to  the  word  of 
warning:  If  Christ  should  come  to-night,  or  to- 
morrow you  would  be  left  behind  to  certain  woe 
and  sorrow  which  even  the  symbols  given  of  God 
fail  fully  to  reveal.  At  the  last  you  would  die. 
For  a  thousand  years  you  would  be  held  in  the 
prison  house  of  the  underworld.  Then  would 
come  the  second  resurrection,  the  second  death. 
As  a  forever  disembodied  soul  you  would  pass 
out  into  eternity  where  the  cry  of  anguish  would 
ring  through  the  endless  and  hopeless  darkness, 
"My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken 
me?" 

Hear  me,  I  pray!  Get  into  Christ,  let  Christ 
get  into  you.  Take  God  at  His  word,  believe  the 
record,  stand  on  the  promise,  offer  Christ  as  your 
sacrifice,  claim  Him  as  your  substitute;  say,  "O 
God,  death  is  my  doom  and  death  is  my  due; 
but,  Thou  hast  given  Thy  Son  for  such  as  I.  Ac- 
cept the  judgment  which  fell  on  Him  as  though 
it  had  fallen  on  me.  By  His  bloody  pains,  His 
anguish  and  His  woe,  let  me  go  free.  Accept  me 
in  His  name,  make  me  Thy  child  and  Thine  for- 


ever more." 


THE  JUDGMENT  SEAT  OF  CHRIST  369 

Say  that  and  mean  it,  and  quickly  as  you  say 
it  God  will  accept  and  save  you. 

God  forbid  you  should  trifle!  God  forbid 
any  one  of  you  here  in  spite  of  the  love  of  God, 
the  blood  of  Christ,  the  call  of  the  Gospel,  the 
conviction  of  the  Spirit  and  the  prayers  of  those 
who  love  you,  God  forbid  you  should  be  among 
those  in  eternity  who  shall  take  up  the  cry,  not 
the  cry  of  adoration  and  praise  from  the  lips  of 
the  blood-washed  and  enraptured  hosts,  but  the 
cry  wrenched  from  the  sunless  souls  of  the  unre- 
deemed, that  unspeakably  awful  cry  which  shall 
make  a  universe  to  quiver — "Lost!  Lost!  We 
are  forever  lost" — God  forbid  it. 


VI 
THAT  BLESSED  HOPE 


The  Blessed  Hope. 

My  theme  to-night  is,  "The  Second  Coming 
of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Blessed  Hope  of 
the  Church." 

My  text  is  Saint  Paul's  epistle  to  Titus,  second 
chapter  and  thirteenth  verse : 

"Looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  and  the  glori- 
ous appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ." 

The  text  may  be  rendered : 

"Expecting  that  blessed  hope,  and  the  mani- 
festation of  the  glory  of  our  great  God  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 

The  text  is  preceded  by  a  context  of  several 
verses.  I  shall  quote  them  inclusive  of  the 
text. 

"For  the  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation 
hath  appeared  to  all  men. 

"Teaching  us,  that,  denying  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lust,  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously, 
and  godly,  In  this  present  world; 

"Looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  and  the  glori- 


374  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

ous  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ." 

In  presenting  this  theme  I  shall  consider, 

First,  the  doctrine  of  grace. 

Second,  the  grace  of  God  has  been  manifested. 

Third,  the  grace  of  God  brings  salvation  to  all 
men. 

Fourth,  the  grace  of  God  teaches  those  who 
accept  salvation  what  to  deny. 

Fifth,  the  grace  of  God  teaches  those  who  are 
saved  how  to  live  in  this  present  age  or  world. 

Sixth,  the  grace  of  God  sets  before  those  of  us 
who  are  saved  the  hope  which  the  Spirit  calls, 
"blessed." 

Seventh,  grace  teaches  us  the  attitude  we 
should  hold  in  relation  to  this  blessed  hope. 

The  grace  of  God! 

This  is  an  immense  phrase. 

Immense  because  it  links  the  word  "grace"  to 
the  name  and  title — God. 

God  is  the  God  of  grace. 

Grace  in  its  simplest  definition  is  "free  favor," 
^'unmerited,  undeserved  favor." 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  375 

The  grace  of  God  is  the  free,  full,  unmerited, 
undeserved  favor  of  God;  that  favor  which  in- 
cludes all  there  is  of  love,  mercy,  blessing,  bene- 
fit of  every  sort,  and  bestowed  on  man  without 
money  and  without  price;  blessing,  mercy,  and 
measureless  love  which  no  man  in  any  wise,  un- 
der any  circumstances  could  merit,  deserve,  buy 
or  earn  in  any  way  or  fashion  whatsoever. 

This  is  grace,  and  grace  of  God. 

This  grace  of  God  was  manifested  in  and 
through  His  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Grace  was  poured  into  His  lips.  He  spoke 
words  of  loving  compassion  and  tender  sym- 
pathy. His  deeds  co-ordinated  His  words.  He 
gave  sight  to  the  blind,  hearing  to  the  deaf, 
speech  to  the  dumb.  He  made  the  lame  man  to 
leap  as  a  hart,  cleansed  the  leper  with  a  word, 
raised  the  dead  and  to  those  who  were  weary 
and  heavy  laden  He  said,  **Come  unto  me  and 
rest." 

All  that  He  said  and  did.  He  said  and  did  in 
the  name  of  the  Father  and  as  sent  by  Him;  so 
that  His  words  and  deeds  were  the  revelation  of 


376  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

the  Father's  heart  and  the  manifestation  of  His 
grace. 

Every  time  His  feet  touched  the  earth  they 
gave  it  a  benediction,  every  time  He  breathed 
the  air  He  sweetened  it  and  every  word  He 
spoke  filled  it  with  music;  yet,  overflowing  with 
love  and  mercy,  perfect  as  His  life  was  in  the 
demonstration  of  the  Father's  grace  and  proof 
that  Heaven  looked  with  yearning  and  compas- 
sion upon  a  world  of  sin,  it  is  not  the  grace  to 
which  the  Spirit  draws  our  attention  here.  The 
grace  we  are  invited  to  contemplate  is  not  His 
life  on  earth  among  men  but  His  death,  for- 
saken of  God  upon  the  cross. 

On  the  cross  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  died  as  a 
sacrifice  for  sin. 

By  that  sacrificial  death  He  satisfied  the  law, 
the  government  and  the  being  of  God. 

He  satisfied  and  honored  the  law  of  God  by 
meeting  and  paying  the  penalty  of  the  law  which 
said,  'The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die." 

He  honored  God's  government  by  recognizing 
the  law  as  coming  from  the  hand  of  God  as  the 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  377 

lawgiver  of  the  universe,  and  therefore  as  its 
ruler,  administrator,  and  governor. 

He  honored  the  being  of  God  by  acting  as  the 
representative  of  man  in  sin,  sin  of  nature  and 
sin  of  transgression,  thus  appealing  to  and  draw- 
ing forth  from  God  all  His  legal  and  essential 
antagonism  to  sin  till  the  heat  and  wrath  and 
hate  of  it  poured  down  as  onrushing  sweeps  of 
divine  and  eternal  judgment 

The  death  of  Christ  was  not  academic,  nor 
merely  dramatic.  It  was  not  accidental  nor  in- 
cidental, but  integral,  constitutional,  the  very 
fibre  and  make-up  of  the  purpose  and  prede- 
termination of  God.  The  cross  was  the  center 
of  the  eternal  counsels  before  the  foundation  of 
the  earth  was  laid.  The  death  of  Christ  was 
motived  and  ordained  before  His  birth. 

By  the  cross  the  righteousness  of  God  was  dis- 
played. 

By  the  cross  God's  hatred  of  sin,  His  un- 
changeable' wrath  and  pitiless,  unending  de- 
termination of  ceaseless  judgment  against  it  and 
punishment  of  it  were  so  proclaimed  and  madq 


37 8  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

manifest  that  with  law,  government  and  being 
honored,  He  could  hold  back  judgment  from  a 
guilty,  sin-loving  world  and  deal  with  it  in  un- 
deserved favor,  mercy,  and  grace. 

Thus  was  the  grace  of  God  proclaimed  by  the 
wrath  of  God. 

Out  of  the  wrath  and  hatred  of  God  against 
sin;  by  the  inexorableness  of  that  law  which 
sheathed  its  sword  of  justice  deep  into  the  quiv- 
ering soul  of  the  divine  victim;  by  the  holiness, 
perfectness  and  absolute  integrity  of  the  Father's 
essential  being  which  made  Him  turn  His  back 
upon  His  Son,  turning  away  from  Him  until  the 
blackness  and  darkness  of  the  infinite  forsaking 
fell  upon  Him  and  drowned  Him  under  its  over- 
flowing billows,  the  grace  of  God  was  made 
manifest. 

This  grace  of  God  brings  salvation  to  all  men. 

The  salvation  is  threefold. 

It  is  salvation  from  the  penalty  of  sin,  the 
power  of  sin,  and  identification  with  and  par- 
ticipation in  the  multiplied,  resplendent  glories 
of  a  Coming  Christ. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  379 

Salvation  from  the  penalty  of  sin  is  to  be  had 
by  claiming  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  a  personal 
substitute. 

Under  the  Levitical  law  the  Jew  who  wished 
to  be  ceremonially  clean  from  the  judgment  of 
sin  selected  a  lamb,  put  a  rope  about  its  neck, 
led  It  to  the  priest,  put  his  hand  upon  Its  head 
and  confessed  his  sins,  the  knife  of  the  priest 
leaped  forth,  the  throat  of  the  victim  was  cut,  the 
blood  was  shed  and  the  offerer  pronounced  clean, 
went  forth  free  of  judgment. 

Just  so  you  are  to  look  back  by  faith  to  the 
cross  of  Christ  (and  faith  can  link  you  to  that 
cross  quicker  than  wireless  telegraphy  can  fling 
its  message  across  the  intervening  seas)  ;  you  are 
to  claim  the  death  of  Christ  upon  the  cross  as 
your  sacrifice  for  sin;  then  you  are  to  turn,  face 
God  and  say  to  Him: 

"O  God,  no  matter  though  I  may  deem  my- 
self the  .whitest  and  finest  of  men;  no  matter 
though  those  who  know  me  may  testify  that  not 
a  spot  or  charge  is  against  me,  I  accept  the  esti- 
mate which  Thou  hast  formed  of  me,  that  I  am  a 


380  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

sinner  both  by  nature  and  transgression.  I  own 
and  accept  Thy  judgment  that  I  ought  to  die; 
but,  I  offer  to  Thee  now  the  sacrifice  which 
Thou  Thyself  hast  provided.  I  claim  Thy  Son 
crucified  and  dead  on  yonder  cross  as  my  sub- 
stitute." 

Immediately  God  the  Father  will  accept  the 
death  of  His  Son  as  though  you  had  died.  He 
will  accept  the  judgment  and  the  billowy  down- 
rush  of  wrath  that  fell  on  Him  as  though  it  had 
fallen  on  you  and  lo!  you  are  legally  clean,  not 
guilty,  forgiven,  justified  and  accepted  as  right- 
eous and  so  presented  before  that  court  where 
holiness  is  the  fashion. 

And  this  is  undeserved  mercy  and  free  favor. 

This  is  grace,  pure  and  unqualified  grace. 

You  have  no  righteousness  of  your  own.  You 
could  not  even  dare  to  offer  it  to  God.  Your 
best  righteousness  in  His  sight  was  no  better  than 
unclean,  filthy  rags.  He  did  not  ask  goodness  of 
you.  God  does  not  want  goodness.  He  wants 
Godness,  His  own  quality  and  character. 

Just  as  you,  if  you  have  respect  for  yourself 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  3^1 

cannot  afiford  to  associate  with  one  whose  char- 
acter is  not  equal  to  your  own,  neither  can  God 
accept  in  fellowship  with  Himself  those  who 
are  not  holy,  spotless,  and  pure.  "Without  holi- 
ness no  man  shall  see  the  Lord."  In  default  of 
that  holiness  you  must  pay  the  penalty  in  death. 
You  never  can  get  beyond  paying  of  it;  and  since 
you  can  neither  live  according  to  the  standard 
of  God's  righteousness,  nor  pass  beyond  the 
liquidation  of  your  penalty,  He  has  provided  the 
sacrifice  for  sin  and  will  accept  the  death  of 
Christ  as  the  full  payment  of  the  penalty  which 
is  your  due  and  will  credit  you  with  the  "obedi- 
ence" of  Christ  unto  that  death  when  you  be- 
lieve, that  through  faith  you  may  be  linked  up 
to  Him,  not  only  as  the  one  made  sin  for  you, 
but  as  your  righteousness,  so  that  in  Him  you 
shall  be  the  very  righteousness  of  God. 

Undeserved  mercy  and  freest  favor  this — 
who  can  doubt  it? 

Grace,  pure  and  unqualified  grace  this — who 
may  dispute  it? 


382  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

Grace  it  is  that  saves  from  the  penalty  of  sin. 

But  you  need  to  be  saved,  not  only  from  the 
penalty,  but  from  the  power  of  sin. 

You  can  be  saved  from  the  power  of  sin  only 
by  a  life  that  is  superior  to,  and  will  reign  above, 
sin. 

This  life  is  not  in  you  by  nature. 

It  is  to  be  found  alone  in  a  risen  Lord  on  the 
throne  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

You  cannot  buy  it.  You  cannot  earn  it. 
There  is  nothing  you  can  do  will  make  you  de- 
serve it.  It  is  to  be  had  only  as  a  gift.  It  is  as 
much  a  gift  as  the  sunshine  which  pours  its  flood 
of  light  upon  you,  as  the  air  you  breathe.  And 
it  is  to  be  had  as  all  other  gifts  of  God  are  to  be 
had.  All  the  money  in  the  world  will  not  buy 
the  gold  of  sunshine,  the  silver  of  moonlight, 
starlight,  nor  the  circumambient  air.  You  must 
receive  them. 

The  life  that  overcomes  sin,  the  life  that  is  the 
power  of  righteousness  and  truth  in  the  soul  is  to 
be  received,  and  received  by  faith,  simple,  child- 
like faith;    for,  the  wages  of  sin  is  death,  but 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  383 

eternal  life  is  the  gift  of  God  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ;  and  since  by  faith  you  are  deliv- 
ered from  death  and  bound  up  in  the  bundle  of 
life  with  the  risen  Christ,  and  are  one  with  Him, 
you  shall  take  part  in  the  glories  that  are  His. 
You  shall  be  heir  of  God  and  joint  heir  with 
Christ. 

This  is  undeserved  mercy,  the  free,  full,  and 
unmeasured  favor  of  God. 

This  is  grace  and  grace  beyond  degree. 

This  grace  and  salvation  by  grace  is  offered 
to  all  men  through  the  gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God  and  is  commissioned  to  be  preached  to 
every  creature. 

This  is  the  age  of  grace. 

Herein  is  the  explanation  why  Iniquity  runs 
riot,  lawlessnesses  are  multiplied  and  sin  rolls  its 
unchecked,  mad  waves  of  sensualism  and  shame 
over  all  the  foundation  of  righteousness  and 
truth.  Here  is  the  reason  why  men  may  blas- 
pheme the  name  of  the  Holy  God,  raise  their 
hands  in  proud  disdain  of  His  every  claim  and 
no  thunderous  judgment  break  forth  to  smite 


3^4  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

them  where  they  stand.  Here  is  the  reason  why 
the  heavens  are  silent,  why  no  miracle,  no  inter- 
vention takes  place,  why  no  wing  of  angel  is 
thrust  through  the  blue  of  yonder  sky:  it  is  be- 
cause God  is  dealing  in  grace;  and  He  and  the 
Heaven  host  are  waiting,  silently  watching  to 
see  what  man  will  do;  whether  he  will  despise 
this  hour  of  grace  or  turn  and  accept  its  offer 
ere  the  wheels  of  judgment  turn. 

Grace,  that  explains  the  silent  God,  the  con- 
tinued down  flow  of  mercy,  rain  falling  upon 
the  just  as  well  as  upon  the  unjust,  the  wicked 
flourishing  like  the  green  bay  tree,  the  continu- 
ance of  the  gospel  and  the  Spirit's  insistent 
pleading. 

But,  grace  not  only  brings  salvation,  it  teaches 
those  who  accept  that  salvation. 

It  teaches  them  what  to  deny. 

That  word  "deny"  is  in  itself  a  revelation. 

It  is  a  revelation  either  of  power  or  weakness. 

He  who  cannot  deny,  who  cannot  say,  "No," 
is  a  pitiable  slave.  Passions,  appetites,  desires 
like  hungry  beasts  with  lolling  tongues  and 
bloodshot  eyes  will  rush  in  and  leap  upon  him. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  385 

Here  is  the  appetite  for  drink. 

Days  and  even  months  may  pass  and  the  poor 
fool  thinks  himself  immune,  the  very  master  and 
boasts  his  freedom,  when,  suddenly,  it  leaps 
upon  him,  clutches  him  by  the  throat  and  bids 
him  yield. 

If  he  cannot  deny,  if  he  cannot  say  "No,"  and 
say  it  with  a  round  and  ringing  circle  of  en- 
closed determination,  authority  and  power,  then 
will  he  follow  like  an  ox  to  slaughter  led :  or 
like  swine  Circe  fed  will  wallow  in  his  swinery 
a  sickening  slave  and  brute  till  the  appetite  is 
gorged  to  fulness  and  then  is  he  flung  down  a 
limp,  lost,  helpless  thing,  full  of  self-contempt 
and  all  the  agony  and  bitterness  of  biting  re- 
morse, filling  himself  with  a  thousand  fresh- 
made  pledges  to  resist,  till  again  the  beast  leaps 
on  him,  claims  him  for  its  own  and  drags  him 
still  deeper  in  the  filthy  mire. 

Or,  it  is  lust,  lust  coming  with  lean  and  lecher- 
ous lip,  clammy  hands  and  hateful  breath  to 
poison  every  vein  of  chastity  and  snakelike  coil 
about  the  soul. 


386  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

Not  always  in  such  beastly  ways  as  that,  but 
in  ways  and  fashions  that  take  you  unawares  and 
smother  you  and  leave  you  stricken,  struggling, 
panting  in  the  treacherous  embrace;  leap  upon 
you  so  quickly,  and  for  a  moment  seem  to  be  so 
beautiful,  so  winsome,  so  appealing  to  all  that 
is  in  you,  so  deceiving  you  and  disarming  you,  so 
hypnotizing  and  charming  you  that  you  sur- 
render with  responding  pulses  and  are  gone  be- 
fore an  angel  of  God  can  descend  and  lift  you  out 
of  the  mire  that  awakens  you  with  its  foul  and 
pitchy  smear. 

But  the  grace  of  God  can  teach  you  to  deny. 

I  saw  a  company  of  men  and  women  terror- 
ized by  a  brute  beast  of  a  dog.  He  saw  they 
were  afraid  of  him.  That  encouraged  him  to 
terrorize  them  more.  He  showed  his  white 
fangs,  his  quivering,  nervous,  slobbering  lips  till 
not  one  of  the  startled,  fear-smitten  party  dared 
to  move. 

Then  I  saw  the  master  come. 

He  looked  the  brute  full  in  the  eye  and  there 
was  an  almost  cruel  smile  upon  his  lips.     He 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  387 

walked  forward  indififerent  to  the  low  and  warn- 
ing growl,  seized  the  beast  by  the  scruff  of  the 
neck,  heaved  him  up  and  flung  him  to  the  earth, 
put  his  feet  upon  the  snapping  jaws  and  with  a 
voice  that  had  in  it  the  sound  of  a  whiplash  said, 
"lie  there."  Then  he  released  him  and  with  a 
howl  of  fear  and  conscious  defeat  the  cowed 
beast  slunk  away  to  its  kennel. 

Like  that  I  have  known  men  to  lay  hold  of  the 
beast  of  passion,  fling  it  down  and  put  their  feet 
upon  its  neck,  bid  it  lie  there  and  be  still. 

The  grace  of  God  taught  them  that. 

Sometimes  it  has  been  a  fight,  terrible,  awful, 
straining  at  everything  of  life  and  hope  in  the 
soul,  but  grace  has  won. 

I  know  men  who  are  Mount  Vesuviuses,  Etnas, 
and  Chimborazzos  in  themselves.  They  are,  in- 
deed, like  burning  volcanoes.  Their  veins  are 
hot  with  inward  fire,  an  easily  provoked  and 
maddened  temper  ready  to  blaze,  to  kindle  into 
flame  at  a  word  or  look,  burst  forth  and  wantonly 
destroy.  They  are  always  on  the  threshold  of 
riotous  words  and  impulsive  acts.     Anger,  re- 


388  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

sentment,  quick  burning  hate  and  a  bitterness 
that  for  the  moment  would  rejoice  to  ruin  every- 
thing that  opposed  or  antagonized  them  are  in 
them  like  bloodhounds  straining  at  a  leash. 

You  would  never  know  it,  never  dream  it. 

They  are  calm,  self-poised  and  self-controlled, 
never  for  a  moment  under  keenest  provocation 
losing  the  grip  upon  themselves. 

The  grace  of  God  has  not  only  given  them  life, 
but  taught  them. 

With  Paul  they  are  able  to  say: 

"By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  what  I  am." 

The  grace  of  God  teaches  those  who  are  saved, 
not  only  to  deny  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts, 
it  teaches  them  hoiv  to  live. 

Of  all  the  blunders  a  human  being  can  make, 
none  are  so  supreme  as  the  blunder  of  thinking 
you  can  profess  the  name  of  Christ,  be  baptized, 
join  the  Church  and  then  live  and  do  as  you 
please,  fill  your  lips  with  evil  speech  and  walk 
in  by  and  forbidden  paths. 

If  you  be  a  true  child  of  God,  if  regeneration 
be  a  fact  in  you,  if  you  have  passed  into  the  realm 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  389 

of  a  new  and  spiritual  genesis,  if  Christ  be  really 
in  you,  then  every  evil  deed  and  treasonable 
speech,  betraying  thought  or  impulse  will  find 
itself  opposed,  rebuked  by  that  new  and  inward 
force,  a  force  that  will  proclaim  you  and  make 
you  in  spite  of  your  own  revolt,  proclaim  your- 
self a  hypocrite,  a  worthless  thing;  so  that,  to 
continue  in  your  careless  and  wilfully  inconsist- 
ent life  you  must  deliberately  strangle  the  ever- 
protesting  voice  of  God  in  you. 

Before  you  are  saved,  before  you  believe  on 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  best  character  in  the 
world  will  not  avail  you,  it  will  not  avail  you 
because  God  is  not  asking  for  the  best  you  can 
do,  but  for  that  which  is  absolutely  perfect,  for 
a  character  like  His  own,  sinless,  holy,  far-flash- 
ing in  hate  against  sin;  and  because  you  do  not 
have  it;  because  by  nature  you  never  can  evolve 
it;  because  in  default  of  it  you  were  under  doom 
of  death;  and  because  you  can  neither  meet  the 
demand  for  life,  nor  satisfy  the  demand  for 
death,  out  of  pure  grace  He  provided  this  right- 
eousness in  Christ  whereby  you  might  be  clothed 


390  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

and  stand  before  Him  in  all  the  perfectness  of 
character  which  He  Himself  requires. 

No  character  of  your  own  before  you  are 
saved,  however  good  it  may  be,  will  save  you. 
That  truth  needs  to  be  repeated  over  and  over 
again  and  sunken  deep  into  your  consciousness 
and  the  consciousness  of  every  human  being  on 
earth;  but,  after  you  are  saved,  then  you  are  to 
give  to  God  the  most  beautiful  and  perfect  char- 
acter the  eternal  life  committed  to  you  can  un- 
fold. 

The  grace  of  God  will  teach  you  to  live  so- 
berly, righteously,  and  godly  in  this  present  world. 
To  live  the  life  that  is  discreet,  equipoised  and 
balanced.  It  will  teach  you  to  keep  your  feet  in 
the  path  of  righteousness  and  truth,  to  live  the 
life  of  godliness,  to  let  God  and  Christ  and  all 
spiritual  things  exude  from  the  very  pores  of 
your  being;  to  be  a  contagion,  not  for  sickness, 
not  for  impulses  of  the  flesh,  but  for  spiritual 
health,  for  divine  vigor  and  all  the  inbreathing 
and  outbreathing  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

You  are  to  live  in  this  present  world   (this 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  391 

age)  an  age  which  is  against  the  sons  of  God, 
and  to  find  yourself  fought  against  and  hindered ; 
so  that,  time  and  again  you  will  find  yourself  in- 
voluntarily saying,  "the  Christian  life  cannot  be 
lived,  everything  is  against  it,  it  is  wholly  im- 
practicable, it  makes  a  man  try  to  live  in  the  air 
while  the  law  of  gravitation  forces  him  to  stay 
upon  the  ground."  You  will  find  yourself  say- 
ing, "I  am  perplexed.  I  am  puzzled  and  do  not 
know  which  way  to  turn.  How  can  I  meet  my 
social  obligations,  my  business  responsibilities 
and  be  true  to  the  spiritual  profession  I  make?" 
The  grace  of  God  will  teach  you.  No  matter 
how  great  the  problem  it  will  teach  you  how  to 
solve  it.  No  matter  how  narrow  the  path  that 
leads  to  the  Kingdom  of  God  it  will  teach  you 
how  to  walk  in  it.  It  will  deliver  you  from  the 
truth  half  told,  an  evil  thing  worse  a  thousand 
fold  in  its  reaction  and  outward  effect  than  a 
whole  and  barefaced  lie.  It  will  deliver  you 
from  the  insincerity  and  purposelessness  which 
can  ruin  the  noblest  lives.  Yes,  the  grace  of  God, 
if  you  are  willing,  if  you  wish  it,  even  if  you  do 


392  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

not  deliberately  hinder  it  will  teach  you  how  to 
live. 

And  now,  this  grace  having  brought  salvation, 
having  taught  us  what  to  deny  and  how  to  live, 
sets  before  us  the  hope  which  is  to  animate  us, 
encourage  us,  make  us  more  and  more  willing 
every  day  to  listen  to  the  admonitions  of  grace 
and  hold  us  fast  and  unswervingly  in  the  faith 
as  the  anchor  holds  when  clouds  and  darkness 
gather  and  wild  storms  break  upon  the  vessel's 
side,  the  hope  which  the  Spirit  specifically  calls 
— ^'that  blessed  hope." 

It  is  well  the  grace  of  God  should  set  this  hope 
before  us. 

Without  hope  it  is  impossible  to  live. 

No  matter  what  may  be  your  equipment,  you 
cannot  live,  you  cannot  achieve  without  hope. 

There  are  some  six  millions  of  peoples  in  this 
great  city  to-night.  To-morrow  men  and  women 
will  go  forth  to  meet  duties,  obligations,  responsi- 
bilities, calls  of  every  sort.  There  will  be  prob- 
lems to  solve  and  questions  to  ansv/er  that  well 
may  take  the  heart  out  of  the  bravest  and  the 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  393 

best.  There  will  be  burdens  to  be  borne  whose 
staggering  weight  will  threaten  to  crush  the 
burden-bearer  to  the  ground. 

And  what  is  it,  think  you,  will  make  this  vast 
army  arise  and  go  forward  and  press  on  in  the 
mighty  struggle  even  with  a  smile  upon  the 
lips? 

What  is  it,  what  else  could  it  be — but  hope? 

Take  hope  away  from  man,  the  strongest,  the 
bravest,  and  the  best  of  men  and  despair  like  an 
octopus  will  thrust  forth  its  foul  and  greedy 
tentacles  and  suck  out  the  very  soul  of  him. 

Look  at  that  man  lying  down  utterly  crushed, 
unnerved,  full  of  mental  darkness  and  soul  hor- 
ror. You  can  do  nothing  with  him.  No  rebuke 
of  yours  will  affect  him.  He  is  indifferent  to  all 
you  say.  Even  if  you  warned  him,  shouted 
aloud  his  danger,  he  would  not  pick  himself  up 
out  of  the  way  of  a  swift  advancing  car.  Tell 
him  it  will  kill  him — what  does  he  care ;  indeed, 
he  would  rather  die  than  live,  and  the  peril  is 
should  he  arise  and  make  an}'-  effort  it  might  be 
to  put  an  end  to  life  he  can  no  longer  endure — 
that  man  has  no  hope. 


394  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

But  let  some  one  bend  down  and  whisper  in 
his  ear  the  gladsome  word  of  hope  and  lo!  a 
new  dawn  will  shine  in  his  eyes,  a  new  light  will 
break  across  his  face,  he  will  arise,  he  will  leap 
to  his  feet,  his  hands  will  outstretch  and  take  on 
their  grip,  he  will  face  the  world  and  win. 

The  Christian  cannot  be  without  hope. 

Without  hope  his  feet  are  weak,  his  steps  are 
laggard  and  his  hands  drop  nerveless  by  his  side. 
If  he  has  no  better  outlook  than  the  things  of 
time  and  sense;  if  the  horizon  does  not  lift  and 
expand  into  promised  and  better  to-morrows,  he 
is  defeated  ere  the  fight  of  faith  begins. 

Grace  teaches  there  is  a  hope  for  the  Church 
and  inclusively  a  hope  for  the  Christian,  an  in- 
dividual and  corporate  hope. 

In  no  direction  have  there  been  greater  blun- 
ders and  more  excuseless  mistakes  than  in  re- 
spect to  the  corporate  hope,  the  hope  of  the 
Church. 

For  generations  the  Church  has  been  taught 
the  conversion  of  the  world  as  its  supreme,  its 
all-inspiring  and  definite  hope. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  395 

By  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  the  whole 
world  was  to  be  brought  into  subjection  to  the 
way  and  will  of  Christ.  This  was  the  hope  held 
out  to  the  Church. 

To-night,  after  twenty  centuries  of  Gospel 
preaching,  the  world  is  farther  away  from  con- 
version than  when  Christianity  began. 

So  far  from  the  world  being  overcome  by  the 
Church,  the  Church  is  rapidly  being  overcome 
by  the  world. 

This  promise  of  a  Gospel-converted  world 
has  been  the  hope  deferred  that  makes  the  heart 
sick. 

It  has  been  a  disappointment  that  has  turned 
to  bitterness  and  unbelief. 

And  there  never  has  been  any  warrant  for  such 
hope. 

The  Church  is  commanded  to  preach  the 
Gospel  in  the  whole  world  to  every  creature, 
and  to  every  creature  in  each  and  every  genera- 
tion. It  was  never  intended  some  should  hear  it 
in  this  generation,  some  more  in  the  next,  more 
in  each   succeeding  generation   till   the  whole 


396  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

world  at  last  should  have  heard  it.  Never  at  all ! 
There  is  no  such  thought  in  the  commission.  It 
was  intended  that  every  creature  in  each  genera- 
tion should  hear  this  Gospel  before  he  died. 
The  whole  world  should  hear  it  completely  from 
generation  to  generation.  None  should  appear 
at  the  final  bar  of  God  and  plead  he  had  never 
heard  the  tidings.  The  Apostle  Paul  affirms  it 
had  been  universally  heard  in  his  day.  Writing 
to  the  Colossians  in  one  generation  after  the 
Gospel  commission  had  been  given  he  says, 
"The  Gospel  which  ye  have  heard,  and  which 
was  preached  to  every  creature  (literally,  in  all 
creation)  which  is  under  heaven."  This  was 
the  divine  ideal  and  purpose. 

But  while  this  is  the  age  for  universal  preach- 
ing, it  is  not  the  age  for  universal  salvation. 

This  is  the  age  of  restricted  salvation,  it  is  the 
hour  of  selective  election. 

By  the  Gospel  of  His  grace  God  is  calling  out 
here  one  and  there  another  into  faith  and  union 
with  His  Son. 

He  is  not  seeking  to  save  the  world,  but  to  call 
men  out  of  it. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  397 

If  you  knew  a  ship  was  out  there  in  the  bay, 
hard  and  fast  upon  hidden  reefs  would  you  go 
forth,  buy  a  lot  of  paint,  gold  leaf,  and  gilding, 
get  into  a  lifeboat  with  a  company  of  house 
painters  and  decorators  and  when  you  had 
reached  the  ship,  even  though  you  saw  the  water 
coming  in  over  the  gunwales  would  you  begin 
to  paint  the  ship  in  true  Louis  Fourteenth  or 
Fifteenth  style?  Would  you  make  the  white 
panels  still  whiter?  Would  you  put  on  the  gild- 
ing and  the  gold  leaf?  Would  you  say,  ''On  with 
the  song  and  the  dance?"  Would  you  tell  any- 
body your  great  hope  was  to  save  the  ship,  then 
continue  to  put  on  paint  and  gold  leaf? 

Surely  you  would  not. 

No!  you  would  leap  into  that  lifeboat.  You 
would  gather  your  sturdy  men  about  you.  You 
would  take  life  lines  and  life  preservers. 
When  you  reached  the  deck  of  the  ship  you 
would  go  into  the  saloon  where  a  lot  of  women 
might  be  found  dawdling  over  a  game  of 
bridge,  and  you  would  cry  out  to  them  warn- 
ingly,  the  ship  was  sinking  and  they  must  fly  for 


398  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

their  lives  to  the  boats  in  waiting.  You  would 
go  into  the  barroom  where  you  might  find  a  lot 
of  men  drinking,  mixing  high  balls  and  profan- 
ity, settling  their  bets  on  the  ship's  run,  and 
you  would  cry  to  them,  "up  and  flee  for  your 
lives." 

God  looks  upon  the  world  as  a  sinking  ship. 

By  the  "world"  is  not  meant  the  earth,  but  this 
human  system,  society,  government  and  all  the 
organized  relations  of  man  to  man.  The  judg- 
ment of  God  is  against  it,  already  it  is  running 
on  the  rocks,  the  sound  of  the  breakers  may  be 
heard,  and  there  is  a  strain  and  quiver  every- 
where throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  it. 
The  tide  is  rising  higher  and  just  as  in  the  days 
of  Noah,  God  will  suddenly  loose  the  whole 
flood  of  long  withheld  judgment  and  sweep  away 
the  present  order  of  things,  sweeping  it  away 
forever. 

He  is  not  calling  the  Church  to  go  and  better 
the  world,  to  paint  it,  decorate  it,  make  it  more 
beautiful  and  attractive,  leading  men  more  than 
ever  to  boast  of  it,  glory  in  it. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  399 

The  Church  is  not  here  to  deceive  herself  with 
the  idea  that  the  world  can  be  saved  as  it  now  is. 

God  is  commanding  the  Church  to  save  men 
out  of  it,  to  get  them  out  of  the  old  creation  in 
Adam  and  get  them  into  the  new  creation  in 
Christ,  get  them  out  of  the  old  system  of  the 
flesh  into  the  new  and  eternal  system  of  the 
Spirit. 

No!  the  hope  held  out  to  the  Church  is  not 
the  conversion  of  the  world  by  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel. 

To  hold  out  that  hope  is  to  play  the  Church 
into  the  hands  of  the  Devil. 

It  shuts  men's  eyes  to  the  terrific  fact  that  God 
has  already  passed  sentence  upon  the  world ;  that 
He  has  said  this  present  system  shall  come  to  a 
cataclysmic  end,  "the  world  passeth  away,  and 
the  lust  thereof."  It  shuts  the  eyes  of  men  to  the 
fact  that  the  death  of  Christ  is  not  only  a  sacri- 
fice for  sjn,  but  a  crime,  a  murder  of  murders 
and  must  be  answered  for  by  the  world  as  such. 

Holding  out  the  hope  of  a  world  converted  by 
the  Gospel  blinds  men's  eyes  to  the  analysis  God 
has  given  of  it. 


400  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

Listen  to  the  analysis: 

"All  that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh, 
and  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life,  is 
not  of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world." 

And  these  three  things,  lust  of  the  flesh,  lust 
of  the  eyes  and  pride  of  life  God  says,  really, 
fundamentally  constitute  the  world. 

Take  them  away  and  the  world  as  we  see  it 
fades  from  view,  its  activities  and  its  "progress" 
come  to  an  end. 

The  hope  that  the  Church  is  to  win  the  w^orld 
for  Christ  through  the  Gospel  blinds  men  to  the 
unbroken  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  as 
the  age  draws  to  its  consummation  there  shall  be 
"perilous  times,"  "a  form  of  godliness,  but  deny- 
ing the  power  thereof,"  and  increasingly  marked 
departure  from  spiritual  things  and  the  ways  of 
God. 

The  hope  of  a  world  converted  by  the  Gospel 
leads  men  to  ignore  such  unmistakable  and 
dynamic  warning  and  to  paint  for  themselves  the 
vision  of  a  world  to  be  made  growingly  better. 
It  leads  men  to  talk  about  the  triumph  of  de- 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  401 

mocracy,  the  elevation  and  brotherhood  of  man, 
the  establishment  of  free  and  righteous  govern- 
ment, the  abolition  of  war.  It  leads  the  preacher 
unconsciously  and  involuntarily  to  fellowship 
every  effort  of  this  nature.  It  leads  him  to  turn 
his  pulpit  into  a  platform  for  prohibition,  for 
purer  politics.  More  and  more  he  identifies 
himself  and  his  Church  with  the  life  that  now  is. 
Every  day  he  seeks  to  congratulate  himself  and 
all  who  hear  him  that  the  world  is  marching  on 
to  the  purple  and  the  gold  of  millennial  days; 
and  yet,  all  the  while  the  shadow  of  Anti-Christ 
is  growing,  unbelief  is  hiding  itself  under  at- 
tractive and  deceptive  forms,  the  thunder  of  the 
surf  grows  louder  and  the  judicial  forces  in  the 
hand  of  God  are  being  assembled  for  the  awful 
blow  that  shall  awake  a  Devil-fooled  world  to 
its  final  doom. 

If  there  has  been  a  false  hope  held  out  to  the 
Church  corporately,  an  equally  false  hope  has 
been  held  out  to  the  Christian  individually. 

The  Christian  has  been  taught  that  Heaven 
was  his  hope,  and  that  he  could  get  there  only  by 


402  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

way  of  death,  the  undertaker,  the  shroud,  and 
the  grave. 

When  I  came  to  New  York  many  years  ago  I 
went  round  the  city  looking  at  the  different 
church  buildings.  I  looked,  naturally,  to  find 
the  names  of  pastors.  I  could  not  find  them. 
No  matter  what  church  building  there  was  but 
one  name  upon  all  the  structures,  some  of  them 
massive  and  splendid,  and  that  name  always  in 
largest  letters  and  with  wealth  of  gilding  was 
the  name  of  the  undertaker.  It  appeared  to  be 
so  settled  the  way  to  Heaven  was  alone  by  the 
graveyard  that  the  undertaker  seemed  to  be 
the  most  important  personage  next  to  death  in 
the  service  and  value  of  the  Church.  The 
churches  seemed  like  monuments  dedicated  to 
death,  they  were  monumental  advertisements  of 
the  graveyard  and  the  funeral  end  of  the  Chris- 
tian life.  The  first  thing  I  did  was  to  have  the 
name  of  that  ubiquitous,  respectable,  but  dis- 
mal personage  taken  off  the  walls  of  my  church. 

Can  you  conceive  of  anything  more  amazingly 
inconsistent,  contradictory,  and  discordant  than 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  403 

to  have  a  church  erected  to  Him  whose  very 
name  is  life  eternal,  and  then  to  have  the  build- 
ing written  all  over  with  the  symbol  of  death? 

But  neither  death  nor  Heaven  are  held  out  as 
the  hope  of  the  Christian. 

The  hope  held  out  to  the  Christian  and  the 
hope  held  out  to  the  Church  is  the  Coming  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  into  the  air  to  take  the 
Church  up  there  to  meet  Him. 

This  is  proved  by  Saint  Paul's  first  letter  to 
the  Thessalonians.  He  had  taught  them  the 
Lord  was  coming  from  Heaven.  He  had  bidden 
them  wait  for  and  expect  Him.  Some  among 
them  had  died.  The  living  were  troubled  lest 
the  dead  in  Christ  should  miss  the  Coming. 

Paul  writes  and  tells  them  they  are  not  to  sor- 
row over  their  dead  as  others  who  have  no 
hope  (as  those,  indeed,  must  sorrow  whose  dead 
do  not  die  in  Christ).  The  Lord  is  coming 
down  into  the  air;  so  far  from  the  dead  in  Christ 
missing  that  great  event  they  will  be  the  first  to 
realize  it.  The  Lord  will  raise  them  first,  then 
the  living  who  are  alive  at  His  Coming  will  be 


404  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

changed  and  caught  up  together  with  them  to 
meet  the  Lord. 

The  apostle  exhorts  them  to  comfort  one  an- 
other with  these  words : 

They  were  to  comfort  one  another  with  the 
words  Paul,  under  special  inspiration  and  par- 
ticular revelation  had  written  them,  that  the 
Lord  was  coming  to  raise  their  dead  and  bring 
them  all  together  into  His  presence. 

This  is  the  hope  set  before  them. 

This  is  the  hope  set  before  us. 

This  is  the  hope  of  which  he  wrote  to  Titus, 
"that  blessed  hope." 

It  is  blessed  because  it  touches  this  matter  of 
the  Christian  dead. 

Last  summer  I  drove  about  a  great  deal 
in  the  mountains.  Sometimes  the  road  wound 
round  and  up  and  over  lifted  heights,  some- 
times under  arching  trees,  by  broad  expanse  of 
turquoise-tinted  lake,  through  cloven  ridges  and 
narrow  Impasses  where  rivulets  rippled  in 
drowsy  murmurs  or  noisy  babble  over  rocky  beds 
and  deeper  rivers  slipped  in  silence  to  the  wait- 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  40^ 

ing  valleys  far  beyond ;  but  wherever  I  drove,  by 
lane  or  beaten  highway  I  saw  the  memorial  of 
the  dead,  in  lonely  churchyard,  in  family  burial 
plot,  in  more  extended  cemetery  near  town  and 
village.  The  larger  the  town,  the  larger  and 
whiter  the  city  of  the  dead  and  the  old  sorrowful 
refrain  came  to  my  mind: 

''They   that   dwell  upon   the   earth   are   but   a 
handful 
To  those  who  sleep  within  its  breast." 

But  I  said  softly,  "Thank  God,  the  day  is 
coming  when  the  dead  shall  hear  a  voice  and 
rise,  the  day  when  death  shall  be  defeated,  and  a 
grave  never  more  be  dug  nor  filled  with  human 
kind." 

That  hour  of  resurrection  triumph  will  be  at 
the  Coming  of  the  Lord. 

There  are  three  records  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment wherein  the  story  is  told  how  Jesus  raised 
the  dead:  the  young  maid  who  had  just  died, 
the  young  man  on  his  way  to  burial,  and  Laza- 
rus four  days  dead  and  corrupting. 


4o6  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

In  each  of  these  cases  the  dead  was  raised  at 
the  Coining  of  the  Lord. 

The  daughter  of  Jairus  was  dead  and  the  fa- 
ther's heart  was  broken. 

Jesus  came.  He  entered  the  house  where  all 
were  mourning.  He  said,  "She  is  not  dead,  but 
sleepeth."  They  laughed  Him  to  scorn.  He 
put  them  all  out  (as  He  will  put  out  of  His 
house  and  shut  out  of  His  kingdom  all  who 
mock  or  make  light  of  Him).  He  took  the 
young  girl  by  the  hand  and  bade  her  rise,  and 
straightway  she  rose  and  walked. 

A  funeral  procession  was  just  turning  out  of 
the  street  of  the  City  of  Nain  on  its  way  to  the 
cemetery. 

The  mother  walked  behind  the  open  bier. 
She  wept  as  with  bowed  head  she  walked;  for, 
this  was  her  only  son  and  she  was  a  widow. 
Much  people  also  followed,  wept,  and  sorrowed 
in  sympathy  with  her. 

At  that  moment  Jesus  and  His  disciples  came 
up  over  the  brow  of  the  hill.  He  stopped  the 
procession  of  the  dead.    He  bade  the  young  man 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  40? 

arise.  He  who  was  dead,  in  obedience  to  the 
master  word,  sat  up  and  began  to  speak.  Then 
Jesus  delivered  him  to  his  mother. 

Lazarus  was  dead.  Lazarus  whom  Jesus 
loved. 

The  sisters  had  sent  for  Him  while  even  yet 
their  brother  was  sick.  They  had  warned  Him 
that  he  whom  He  loved  was  grievously  ill.  But 
Jesus  waited  till  death  came,  and  now  He  ap- 
proached the  house  of  mourning.  Martha  met 
Him.  She  reproached  Him  because  He  had  de- 
layed, because  He  had  not  come  at  once  in  an- 
swer to  their  earnest  pleading.    She  said: 

"If  thou  hadst  been  here,  my  brother  had  not 
died." 

Then  it  was  Jesus  answered  in  those  words  in 
which  every  syllable  is  a  symphony  of  love,  of 
grace,  of  tender  compassion  and  infinite  and 
Almighty  assurance: 

"I  am  the  resurrection  and  thfj  life:  he  that 
believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall 
he  live." 

He  goes  to  the  grave. 


4o8  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

He  tells  them  to  roll  away  the  stone. 

He  bids  them  do  this  because  it  is  in  their 
power  to  do  it,  and  because  the  eternal  and  all- 
powerful  God  will  never  do  what  we  can  and 
what  we  are  responsible  to  do. 

Then  with  a  loud  voice  He  bids  Lazarus 
come  forth;  and  he  that  was  dead,  heard,  lived, 
and  came  forth,  but  bound  hand  and  foot  with 
grave  clothes. 

And  again  Jesus  bids  them  do  what  they  could 
do  and  what  because  of  it  He  had  no  need  to  do, 
to  loose  Lazarus,  unbind  the  grave  clothes  and 
let  him  go  (and  in  this  the  Lord  illustrates  the 
work  into  which  the  Church  is  called  after  the 
sinner  has  been  spiritually  raised  through  hear- 
ing the  voice  of  the  Lord  in  the  Gospel^loosen- 
ing  the  converted  soul  from  the  bonds  of  spirit- 
ual death,  teaching  him  the  truth;  as  it  is  writ- 
ten :  "Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free."  Unless  rightly  taught  the 
quickened  and  saved  soul,  like  Lazarus,  remains 
bound,  can  neither  see,  use  the  hands,  nor  walk 
aright.  Teaching  must  come  after  the  Gospel — 
it  is  loosing  and  letting  go). 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  409 

In  each  of  these  cases  the  dead  was  raised  by 
the  Personal  Coming  of  I  he  Lord. 

It  is  by  the  Coming  of  the  Lord,  and  by  the 
Coming  of  the  Lord  alone  that  the  dead  in 
Christ  will  be  raised. 

If  the  Lord  do  not  come  Himself  the  dead 
in  Christ  will  never  be  raised,  resurrection  will 
never  take  place. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  warrant  in  the  Word 
of  God  to  hope  for  the  resurrection  of  the  Chris- 
tian dead  apart  from  the  Second,  personal  Com- 
ing of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Take  the  Second  Coming  out  of  the  Book  and 
you  pack  the  grave  clods  down  hard  and  fast 
upon  the  head  of  your  hopelessly  dead. 

Take  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ  out  of  the 
New  Testament  and  there  is  not  one  word  of 
hope  you  can  hold  out  that  the  Christian  dead 
will  ever  be  anything  more  than  disembodied 
ghosts. 

Even  though  they  be  in  Heaven  and  with  the 
Lord,  so  long  as  their  bodies  lie  mouldering  in 
the  earth  and  part  of  its  wind-blown  dust  their 


410  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

victory  over  death  is  only  partial.  The  victory 
of  Christ  over  death  is  only  partial.  The  Devil 
who  is  the  "strong  man  armed"  (armed  with  the 
law  which  says  it  is  appointed  unto  men  once 
to  die)  holds  them  as  his  "goods"  in  his  "house" 
of  the  grave.  Not  only  that,  but  in  so  far  as  the 
Christian  dead  are  concerned  the  Lord  does  not 
become  for  them  the  "resurrection  and  the  life" 
He  claimed;  on  the  contrary,  He  becomes  an 
amazing  concrete  of  contradiction;  for,  while 
Himself  a  risen,  immortal  man,  His  resurrec- 
tion and  immortality  seals  of  His  own  complete 
triumph  over  death.  He  is  surrounded  by 
ghostly  beings  whose  bodies  purchased  by  His 
blood  He  has  not  raised  and  whose  bodiless  es- 
tate bears  witness  that  His  redemption  for  them 
has  not  been  complete;  an  incompleteness  all  the 
more  emphasized  by  His  own  risen,  immortal 
body.  Nay!  every  moment  that  this  risen  body 
flashes  forth  its  splendor,  it  proves  the  incom- 
pleteness of  those  for  w^hom  He  died  and  testifies. 
The  Devil  has  cut  His  victory  in  two  and  divided 
even  honors  with  Him.     O,  no,  Christians  as 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  411 

eternal  ghosts  in  Heaven  with  Christ  do  not  be- 
come His  glory  but  dishonor. 

Because  Christ  is  surely  Coming  a  Second 
time  and  that  Coming  means  the  deliverance  of 
the  body  of  the  dead  Christian ;  because  it  means 
the  Christian's  complete  redemption  from  the 
power  of  death;  because  it  means  the  revelation 
of  the  Christian  in  an  immortal  glorified  body 
like  His  own,  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  is  right- 
eously and  logically  held  out  as  the  blessed  hope, 
both  to  the  Church  and  individual  Christian. 

Not  only  are  the  Christian  dead  to  be  raised, 
but  Christians  living  In  that  hour  are  to  be 
changed,  transfigured,  made  deathless,  incor- 
ruptible, immortal. 

In  a  moment,  at  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  the 
wrinkles  will  disappear  from  the  brow  of  age, 
the  sick  will  be  cured,  health  will  leap  through 
every  vein  and  youth  immortal  shall  clothe  each 
changed,  transfigured  and  translated  saint. 

This  is  the  hope  held  out  to  us. 

Blessed,  indeed,  or,  as  it  means,  "happy"  is 
this  hope  held  out  to  us. 


412  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

It  means  our  gathering  together  on  the  plains 
of  light,  our  reunion,  and  our  knowing  one  an- 
other  in  His  presence. 

If  He  were  to  come  to-night  the  first  one  I 
should  seek  would  be  my  father.  I  believed  in 
him  when  I  did  not  believe  in  God.  He  stood 
between  me  and  the  world  for  years.  For  long 
years  he  stood  there;  and  when  I  went  forth 
from  his  roof  to  make  my  way  he  laid  his  hand 
upon  my  shoulder  and  with  depth  of  love  in  his 
tender,  but  never  lowered  eyes  he  said  (and  do 
you  think  eternity  will  ever  make  me  forget  it) 
he  said,  "My  son,  if  it  does  not  go  right  with 
you;  if  things  are  not  as  you  hope  them  to  be, 
remember  so  long  as  I  live  you  have  a  home.'' 
And  I  banked  on  that.  It  gave  me  strength  to 
stand  and  courage  and  hope  in  many  an  hour  of 
loneliness  and  sad  perplexity. 

If  the  Lord  were  to  come  to-night  and  take 
me  into  the  upper  city  I  would  go  straight  up  to 
that  father  and  tell  him  all  over  again  the  love 
he  knows  I  bear  him.  Do  you  think  I  would 
make  my  mother  merely  a  second?    Impossible! 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  4^3 

She  would  be  there  and  I  would  put  my  arms 
about  them  both,  and  how  much  I  would  thank 
her;  for,  I  am  here  to-night  and  preach  because 
she  greatly  prayed  me  into  this  ministry.  I 
never  sought  it.  I  shut  the  door  upon  it.  I 
turned  away  from  it  and  would  none  of  it,  but 
her  prayer  helped  to  swing  the  door  wide  open 
and  I  entered  into  that  ministry  wherein  the 
Lord  Himself  had  called  me  and  with  strong 
compelling  hand  had  bid  me  enter. 

But  to-night  if  I  were  lifted  up  into  that  glory 
place  within  the  vail  and  looked  about  upon  all 
the  shining  host  of  the  blood-redeemed  and 
looked,  and  looked  in  vain  and  could  not  recog- 
nize either  my  father  or  my  mother,  what  mean- 
ing think  you  would  there  be  in  the  apostle's 
words  exhorting  me  to  be  comforted  with  the 
thought  the  Lord  is  Coming  and  that  I  shall  be 
caught  up  with  the  risen  and  transfigured  dead? 
What  con>fort  would  there  be  in  his  words  for 
me?  Surely  none.  Nay!  Those  words  would 
be  but  meaningless  mockery  and  bitterness  of 
disappointment   he   himself   had   wrought   and 


414  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

made.  But,  since  he  was  honest  and  his  words 
are  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost  this  prom- 
ise of  our  Lord's  return  and  our  reunion  in  His 
presence  carries  in  the  heart  of  it  the  assurance 
that  we  shall  meet  and  know  each  other  then. 

But  we  are  left  to  no  induction,  no  conjec- 
tural or  presumptive  conclusion,  for  the  apostle 
writes: 

''Then  (that  is,  when  the  Lord  comes)  then 
shall  I  know  even  as  I  am  known." 

There  will  be  cognition  as  well  as  recognition. 
We  shall  know  the  generations  old.  I  shall 
know  Abel  who  first  from  afar  through  his 
bleeding  lamb  saw  the  bleeding  and  Heaven 
ordained  victim  on  the  cross.  I  shall  know 
Abraham,  who  had  faith  to  go  whither  he  knew 
not  because  he  trusted  that  the  God  who  had 
called  him  would  also  lead  him.  I  shall  see  and 
know  Moses,  he  who  stood  amid  the  flaming 
glories  of  Sinai's  cloud-capped  height  and  saw 
the  finger  of  God  write  the  law  on  tables  of  stone. 
I  shall  see  David  whose  harp  strings  have  evoked 
the  songs  that  have  filled  a  world  with  hope  and 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  415 

consolation.  I  shall  see  and  know  Simon  Peter, 
who  drew  his  sword  to  defend  his  Lord,  and 
John,  who  leaned  upon  the  Master's  breast.  I 
shall  see  Paul,  glorious,  much  suffering,  Paul. 
I  shall  see  and  know  the  martyrs  of  succeeding 
years;  such  as  Zwingli  and  Huss,  a  Savonarola 
who  walked  to  the  cruel  stake  with  quiet  dignity 
amid  the  falling  tears  and  quivering  hearts  of 
a  silent,  grief-stricken  city;  Cranmer,  Latimer, 
and  Ridley,  who  amid  the  piled  up,  burning 
fagots  and  from  their  tortured  bodies  kindled  a 
flame  of  faith  and  undying  devotion  for  God.  I 
I  shall  know  the  Wesley  brothers  and  Whitfield 
and  see  again,  but  glorified,  the  Moody,  who 
filled  the  eyes  of  men  with  tears  and  led  them 
with  no  burlesque  speech  nor  clownish  platform 
tricks,  but  a  sweet,  old-time  Gospel  and  a  plead- 
ing, Christ-filled  spirit  to  the  Master's  feet. 

It  is  a  blessed  hope  because  it  means  the 
Church,  all  genuine  Christians,  shall  be  deliv- 
ered from  the  hour  and  horror  of  the  Great 
Tribulation,  which  with  swift  and  steady  stride 
is  coming  on  the  earth. 


41 6  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

Everywhere  we  are  told  from  pulpit  and 
from  press  the  world  is  growing  better  and 
that  days  of  peace  and  prosperity  are  about  to 
fill  the  earth.  Everywhere  men  have  been  cry- 
ing peace  and  safety. 

But  the  sons  of  God  and  all  His  apostles  lift 
up  their  voices  and  warn  against  the  fallacy  and 
folly  of  those  who  talk  peace  when  there  can  be 
no  peace. 

The  Son  of  God  Himself  talks  in  terms  of 
war  and  rumors  of  war,  of  famine,  pestilence, 
and  earthquake,  of  lawlessness  multiplied,  Sa- 
tanic powers  and  miracles.  He  speaks  of  an 
hour  when  the  heavens  shall  seem  to  fall,  the 
earth  to  shiver  and  tremble  as  a  cottage  shaken 
by  the  storm,  the  sea  and  the  waves  roaring,  the 
doors  of  the  unseen  world  wide  flung,  distress  of 
nations  with  perplexity  and  men's  hearts  failing 
them  for  fear  for  looking  after  the  things  that 
are  coming  on  the  earth ;  everjrwhere  confusion, 
conflict  and  all  the  loosened  might  of  wrong  and 
cataclysmic  climaxes  in  the  closing  hours  of  a 
cataclysmic  and  catastrophic  age;  a  time  so  ter- 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  41? 

rible  none  has  ever  been  like  it  nor  ever  shall  be 
again;  a  time  so  terrible  that  unless  those  days 
were  actually  shortened  no  flesh  should  live. 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord  means  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  Church  from  all  that. 

You  will  find  the  scenic  proof  and  demonstra- 
tion of  this  in  the  book  of  the  Revelation. 
In  the  fourth  chapter  John  is  caught  up  to 
Heaven  at  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  voice  as  the 
representative  and  figure  of  the  translation  of 
the  Church  at  the  Coming  of  the  Lord.  In  the 
fourth  and  fifth  chapters  the  Church  is  seen  un- 
der the  symbol  of  twenty-four  kingly  and 
priestly  elders  enthroned  in  Heaven.  From  the 
sixth  chapter  to  the  nineteenth  chapter  you  have 
a  picture  of  the  tribulation,  the  woe  on  earth  and 
the  mad  course  of  the  Devil  incarnate  Anti- 
Christ.  Not  once  in  all  these  chapters,  not  In  a 
single  line  nor  by  the  most  faint  and  shadowy 
suggestion  of  the  smallest  fraction  of  an  infer- 
ential hint  can  you  see  even  the  first  outline  of 
the  Church  on  earth;  on  the  contrary,  in  the 
thirteenth  chapter  and  sixth  verse  you  have  a 


41 8  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

dynamic  and  corroborative  declaration  that  dur- 
ing all  this  time  the  translated  Church  is  in 
Heaven. 

In  the  sixth  verse  it  is  written: 

"And  he  (the  beast,  the  Anti-Christ)  opened 
his  mouth  in  blasphemy  against  God  to  blas- 
pheme his  name,  and  his  tabernacle,  and  them 
that  dwell  in  heaven/^ 

The  last  conjunctive  particle  ''and''  is  not  in 
the  Greek  text.  It  should  be  omitted.  The 
clause  then  properly  would  read: 

''His  tabernacle,  them  that  dioell  in  heaven/' 

The  tabernacle  of  God  is  the  dwelling  place 
or  habitation  of  God. 

The  Church  is  the  dwelling  place  or  habita- 
tion of  God;   as  it  is  written: 

"In  whom  ye  also  (Christians  at  Ephesus) 
are  builded  (are  being  builded)  together  for  an 
habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit." 

The  sixth  verse  of  Revelation  thirteenth 
therefore  paints  the  picture  of  the  fruitless  fury 
of  the  Beast,  the  Anti-Christ,  against  the  Church, 
and  the  security  of  the  Church  at  that  moment 
because  dwelling  in  Heaven. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  419 

The  twelfth  chapter  shows  us  the  Devil  cast 
out  of  the  heavens  and  down  on  the  earth,  the 
thirteenth  chapter  shows  us  the  Church  taken 
out  of  the  earth  and  enthroned  in  Heaven. 

The  Coming  of  Christ  takes  us  out  of  the  earth 
and  puts  us  in  Heaven;  so  that  as  Christians  we 
shall  not  go  through  nor  even  enter  the  edge  of 
the  Great  Tribulation. 

And  because  this  is  so  the  Coming  of  Christ 
for  His  Church  is  above  all  others,  the  blessed 
hope. 

It  is  a  blessed  hope  because  it  means  inuiwr- 
tality. 

In  Scripture  the  Vv^ords  "immortal,"  "immor- 
tality" are  not  applied  to  the  soul,  but  to  the 
body.  They  mean  a  deathless,  incorruptible, 
pneumatical  body. 

They  mean  lifting  man  into  the  place  God  in- 
tended he  should  have. 

Look  at  nian  as  you  see  him  now,  sick,  faint- 
ing, fallen  down,  and  dying.  The  other  day  as 
I  passed  one  of  the  great  cemeteries  I  said, 
musingly,  "What  mighty  mental  powers  have 


420  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

gone  down  into  the  ground  there,  minds  that 
moved  forces,  wills  that  controlled  vast  enter- 
prises, moulded  and  shaped  destinies.  Is  that 
the  best  God  could  do?  set  such  powers  to  work 
in  frail  and  easily  shattered  bodies,  let  them 
break,  turn  to  dust,  the  spirit  disappear  and 
seem  to  be  no  more?" 

Nay!  the  revelation  of  God's  real  and  infinite 
purpose  shall  be  seen  in  the  immortal  bodies 
Jesus  will  give  us  when  He  shall  come  again. 
Each  body  shall  be  a  storage  battery,  all  the  laws 
and  hidden  forces  of  the  universe  shall  be  con- 
centrated in  such  a  body.  The  nexus  shall  be 
the  will.  The  immortal  Christian  shall  speak 
and  it  shall  be  done.  He  will  command  and  it 
shall  stand  fast.  In  this  we  shall  be  like  the  Son 
of  God  Himself.  We  shall  be  masters  whether 
on  land  or  sea  or  in  the  air. 

Blessed  is  this  hope  of  a  coming  Lord,  coming 
for  those  who  are  His. 

Blessed  because  it  will  lift  the  Church  into 
the  place  of  associated  power  and  rulership  with 
Christ  over  the  world. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  421 

For  two  thousand  years  the  Church  has  tried 
to  rule  the  world. 

The  Roman  Church  tried  it,  became  apostate 
and  failed,  became  political  and  unspiritual,  at- 
tempted to  win  by  stake,  by  blood,  and  torture, 
and  not  by  grace  and  truth;  by  blood  and  tpr- 
ture  till  scarlet  became  the  fitting  color  her 
priesthood  wears. 

The  world  rose  up,  broke  the  shackles  and  for 
a  while  refused  to  hear  her  speak. 

Then  the  Protestant  Church  dreamed  that  by 
the  Gospel  it  could  lay  hold  of  the  world  and 
bring  it  in  due  submission  to  its  will.  It  failed. 
Then  it  entered  into  partnership  with  civiliza- 
tion, education,  and  human  culture.  It  modified 
its  ancient  theology,  it  cut  out  some  pages  from 
the  Bible,  got  rid  of  miracles,  repudiated  full 
inspiration  and  turning  itself  into  a  system  of 
ethical  culture  and  competitive  morality  has 
hoped  to  win  the  world  by  coming  down  to  the 
level  of  its  materialistic  naturalism. 

And  here  it  has  utterly,  derisively  and  de- 
servedly failed. 


422  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

Neither  owned  of  God  nor  much  respected  by 
the  world  it  is  fast  traveling  to  that  Laodicean 
threshold  where  the  Son  of  God  has  threatened 
to  spew  it  out  of  His  mouth. 

The  Church  while  down  here  cannot  rule  the 
world. 

It  is  incapable  of  ruling  the  world,  not  only 
because  Christ  the  living  Head  is  still  a  rejected 
King  and  exile  from  His  covenant  throne,  but 
because  between  us  and  the  line  of  light  which 
breaks  like  whitened  surf  of  wide  sea  splendor 
against  the  black  and  sunless  void  surround- 
ing this  earth,  there  is  a  hierarchy  of  evil 
spirits;  so  that  the  apostle  has  said,  "We  wrestle 
not  with  flesh  and  blood,"  as  did  the  Israelites 
when  they  sought  to  gain  possession  of  the 
Promised  Land,  but  with  wicked  spirits  in  the 
atmospheric  heavens.  These  spirits  dwelling  in 
that  zone  of  darkness  are  called  "Kosmokrdtoras 
Tous  Skotous  Toutou."  "The  world  rulers  of 
(or  from)  this  darkness."  They  are  under  the 
leadership  of  him  whom  our  Lord  calls,  "the 
prince  of  this  world,"  and  who  is  none  other  than 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  423 

^'that  old  serpent  which  is  called  the  Devil  and 
Satan."  Under  him  and  governed  by  his 
subtle  wisdom  they  stand  behind  the  thrones  of 
kings,  of  emperors  and  the  chairs  of  presidents, 
dictate  the  policy  of  cabinets,  inspire  confusion, 
complication  and  war  among  the  nations.  The 
Apostle  John  in  vision  sees  three  of  them  going 
forth  to  gather  the  nations  to  that  final  world- 
wide war  rendezvous  at  Har  Mageddon. 

No  matter  what  attitude  the  Church  may  take, 
no  matter  how  spiritually  it  may  live,  this  is  an 
age  when  Satanic  power  will  send  abroad  those 
forces  which  will  array  themselves  now  in  open 
wickedness  and  anon  as  angels  of  light  against 
divine  rule  and  Heaven's  ways  of  righteousness. 

The  Church  is  not  here  to  rule  the  world  but 
to  protest  against  it.  It  bears  the  same  relation 
to  the  world  to-day  as  did  the  ministry  of  Noah. 
We  are  told  that  he  "being  warned  of  God  of 
things  not  seen  as  yet,  moved  with  fear,  prepared 
an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his  house;  by  the  which 
he  condemned  the  ivorld." 

The  ark  was  a  warning  of  coming  judgment 


424  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

from  the  hand  of  God,  a  protest  against  sin  and 
unbelief;  and  by  so  much  as  it  stood  for  the 
saving  of  men  out  of  the  world,  condemned  the 
world. 

Such  is  the  responsibility  and  should  be  the 
attitude  and  function  of  the  Church. 

The  Church  is  here  to  save  men  out  of  the 
world;  by  so  much  it  is  a  protest  against  it  as  a 
system,  condemns  it  and  is  a  witness,  God  has 
ordained  it  shall  pass  away. 

For  the  Church  to  assume  the  place  of  ruler- 
ship  while  the  Lord  is  an  exile  from  His  own 
particular  throne  would  be  open  treason  to  Him. 
It  would  be  as  much  treason  as  though  a  queen 
should  attempt  to  rule  while  her  husband  was 
"despised  and  rejected"  as  king.  Such  an  at- 
tempt would  be  proof  that  she  had  not  only 
parted  company  from  himself,  but  had  rejected 
his  principles. 

A  church  in  the  place  of  world  pomp,  power, 
and  glory  would  be  proof  irresistible  that  she  had 
forgotten  the  faith  of  Him  whose  name  she 
wears;  had  forgotten  that  He  walked  this  earth 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  425 

a  pilgrim  and  a  stranger,  a  faithful  witness  of 
coming  judgment;  and  that  it  was  He  who  has 
said: 

"As  the  days  of  Noah  were,  so  shall  also  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  man  be." 

No!  this  is  not  the  hour  of  Church  rulership. 

With  keen  and  spirit-inspired  arraignment 
the  apostle  rebukes  the  Church  at  Corinth  be- 
cause they  thought  the  hour  of  world  rulership 
had  come.    He  says : 

"Now  ye  are  full,  now  ye  are  rich,  ye  have 
reigned  as  kings  without  us:  and  I  would  to 
God  ye  did  reign,  that  we  also  might  reign  with 
you." 

Then  he  goes  on  to  show  that  so  far  from 
reigning  and  ruling  in  the  world  he  and  the 
apostles  were  suffering  from  the  evil  and  perse- 
cution of  the  world.    He  says : 

"For  I  think  that  God  hath  set  forth  us  the 
apostles  last,  as  it  were  appointed  unto  death: 
for  we  are  made  a  spectacle  unto  the  world,  and 
to  angels,  and  to  men. 

"We  are  fools  for  Christ's  sake,  but  ye  are 


426  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

wise  in  Christ;  we  are  weak,  but  ye  are  strong; 
ye  are  honorable,  but  we  are  despised. 

"Even  unto  this  present  hour  we  both  hunger, 
and  thirst,  and  are  naked,  and  are  buffeted,  and 
have  no  certain  dwelling  place; 

"And  labour,  working  with  our  own  hands: 
being  reviled,  we  bless;  being  persecuted,  we 
suffer  it. 

"Being  defamed,  we  intreat:  we  are  made  as 
the  filth  of  the  njoorld,  and  are  tJie  off  scouring  of 
all  things  unto  this  day." 

Surely  there  is  no  royal  rulership  in  this;  nor 
can  there  be  till  the  Lord  comes.  The  rulership 
of  the  Church  is  coincident  witJi  the  Cominy  of 
the  Lord. 

When  He  comes  to  reign,  when  Fie  appears 
in  glory  as  King  of  kings,  then  as  a  Queen  the 
Church  will  appear  with  Him  and  reign  over 
the  world  in  glory;   wherefore  it  is  written: 

"If  we  suffer,  we  shall  also  reign  with  him." 

Not  till  after  the  Church  is  taken  to  Heaven 
does  she  take  up  the  triumphant  song  of  antici- 
pated  rulership. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  4^7 

In  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  Revelation  where 
the  Church  is  seen  translated  to  Heaven  and 
dwelling  there  under  the  figure  of  the  twenty- 
four  elders,  and  at  the  moment  when  the  Lord 
takes  the  title  deeds  to  the  kingdom  and  is  about 
to  break  the  seals  and  send  down  the  judgment 
which  precedes  His  appearing,  the  Church 
breaks  forth  into  this  exultant  announcement, 
this  new,  new  song  of  redemption  and  rule: 

"And  they  sung  a  new  song,  saying,  Thou 
(the  once  slain  Lamb,  the  risen  Lord)  art 
worthy  to  take  the  book,  and  to  open  the  seals 
thereof:  for  thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed 
us  to  God  by  thy  blood,  out  of  every  kindred, 
and  tongue,  and  people,  and  nation; 

"And  hast  made  us  unto  our  God  kings  and 
priests:  and  we  shall  reign  on  (over)  the 
earth." 

When  He  shall  appear  to  take  to  Himself  His 
great  power  and  reign,  the  Church  shall  be  en- 
throned in  light.  Then  shall  she  rule  with  Him. 
Where  now  the  world  walks  In  the  spiritual 
darkness  of  this  hierarchy  of  evil,  then  will  It 


42  8  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

walk  in  the  light  of  the  exalted  and  glorified 
Church  of  Christ,  the  Church  of  the  first  born 
ones. 

All  this  is  consequent  upon  the  Coming  of  the 
Lord  into  the  air  to  take  the  Church  up  to  Him- 
self in  the  Holy  City. 

Blessed,  indeed,  is  this  hope  set  before  us,  be- 
cause the  result  of  it  will  be  the  manifestation 
and*  complete  revealing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
as  '^our  great  God  and  Saviour/' 

We  shall  see  Him  as — Our  great  God. 

When  I  was  a  stranger  to  Him;  when  I  knew 
Him  not  and  was  filled  with  questions  I  could 
not  answer  and  none  could  answer  for  me ;  when 
there  was  no  rest  and  peace;  when  the  universe 
seemed  a  huge  mistake  or  a  fearful  and  brutal 
thing  crushing  me  at  every  turn  wherever  I 
lifted  and  posed  an  investigating  thought,  I  said 
within  myself  had  I  the  fashioning  of  a  God, 
He  should  be  human,  with  a  human  heart 
and  human  understanding,  with  capacity  to  enter 
into  my  sorrows,  my  perplexities  and  cares,  and, 
at  the  same  time  a  God  who  should  have  all 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  4^9 

power  to  match  and  fulfill  the  promises  He 
should  make  to  me. 

I  did  not  know  then,  I  did  not  understand, 
this  was,  indeed,  the  very  God  who  had  en- 
tered the  earth  and  died  for  men,  the  God  who 
now  sits  on  yonder  throne  in  glorified  and  ifi- 
finite  humanity. 

We  shall  see  Him  with  His  perfect,  immortal 
humanity,  the  center  of  the  effulgent  deity  that 
is  His  and  clothes  Him,  very  God  of  very  God, 
real  man,  true  and  everlasting  God  and  everlast- 
ing man.  " 

Everlasting  God,  our  human  and  divine 
Saviour! 

The  Saviour  who  gave  Himself  to  die  for  us. 

Paul  will  kneel  at  His  feet  and  cry: 

"Thou  lovedst  me  and  gavest  thyself  for  me." 

And  I  shall  say  that,  and  ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousand  and  thousands  of  thousands  shall 
say  that  and  fling  their  tribute  of  praise  and 
adoration  before  Him  as  when  ingots  of  gold 
are  flung  into  the  treasury  of  a  king. 

Not  only  this,  but  the  Church,  as  a  Church, 


430  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

shall  take  part  in  the  manifestation  of  His  glory; 
as  it  is  written: 

"When  Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall  appear, 
then  shall  ye  also  appear  with  him  in  glory." 

When  He  appears  in  glory,  He  will  appear 
from  Heaven. 

When  the  Church  appears  with  Him  in  glory, 
she  also,  must  appear  from  Heaven. 

Before  the  Church  can  appear  from  Heaven 
she  must  be  caught  up  into  Heaven. 

She  is  caught  up  to  meet  the  Lord  when  He 
descends  into  the  air ;  as  it  is  written : 

"We  which  are  alive  and  remain,  shall  be 
caught  up  together  with  them  (the  risen,  Chris- 
tian dead)  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in 
the  air.'* 

This  being  caught  up  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the 
air  is  declared  by  the  Holy  Spirit  officially, 
to  be: 

"Our  gathering  together  unto  Him." 

Our  gathering  together  to  meet  Him  in  the 
air  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  takes  place  be- 
fore we  can  appear  with  Him  in  glory. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  43 1 

The  Coming  of  Christ  into  the  air  to  gather 
the  Church  to  Flimself  previous  to  His  ap- 
pearing in  glory  is,  strictly  speaking,  the  actual, 
preeminent,  blessed  hope  of  the  Church.  The 
appearing/  in  glory  is  made  a  conjunctive  part 
of  it  and  the  statement  of  the  icxt  reads:  "That 
blessed  hope,  and  the  glorious  appearing,"  he- 
cause  the  glorious  appearing  (appearing  of  the 
glory)  is  included  in  and  (although  a  distinct 
stage  of  it)  is  a  resultant  part  of  the  Blessed 
Hope. 

It  is  because  of  this  blessed  (happy)  fact  that 
Christ  is  coming  first  for  the  Church  that  we 
shall  appear  with  Him  in  the  glory. 

The  glory!    Who  can  describe  it? 

What  words,  or  forms,  or  symbols  can  re- 
veal it. 

Take  suns  and  systems,  take  the  twelve  thou- 
sand millions  of  suns  (suns  alone)  that  are 
spread  within  the  radii  of  the  telescope;  take 
all  the  suns  and  their  circling  and  depend- 
ent systems,  all  the  universe,  and  focus  them 
into    one    colorful    fusion    of    astral    splendor; 


432  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

turn  all  the  clouds  into  shekinal  chariots; 
gather  all  the  unnumbered  and  innumerable  an- 
gels of  the  unnumbered  worlds  in  our  Father's 
house  and  concentrate  the  coruscation  of  their 
blinding  beauty,  the  illumination  of  their  kingly 
faces;  take  all  the  songs  that  have  been  sung  by 
them  over  every  repentent  soul  on  earth ;  let  the 
earth  lift  up  its  voice  from  all  its  hills  and  vales; 
let  the  sea  bid  "the  white  priesthood"  of  its 
waves  to  kneel  on  every  shore  and  chant  in  foam 
written  hallelujahs;  let  all  the  wide,  measure- 
less spaces,  the  endless,  infinite  extensions  sound 
the  music  of  their  ever  rolling  spheres  in  such 
inwrought  and  perfect  unison  that  earth  and  the 
inhabitants  thereof  shall  hear  the  farthest  and 
the  faintest  accent;  then  let  the  Son  of  God 
come  forth  in  all  His  personal  and  essential 
glory  now  for  the  first  time  fully  revealed,  until 
sun  and  moon  and  stars  shall  pale  and  all  beauty 
fade  and  there  remain  but  one  vision  of  visions 
to  fill  earth  and  Heaven:  till  His  face  and  His 
alone  be  seen,  and  His  voice  be  heard  as  the 
sound  of  many  waters,  mightier  than  all  the 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  433 

sounding  waters  of  all  the  seven  seas  when  lifted 
and  flung  with  crashing,  tempestuous  thunders 
on  every  rock-bound  shore;  then  let  the  Church, 
the  saints  of  all  the  ages  be  seen  with  Him,  re- 
flecting Him  as  the  moon  reflects  the  sun,  but 
when  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be  as  the  light 
of  the  sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  is  seven-fold 
as  the  light  of  seven  days ;  and  then  when  all  has 
been  done  and  all  words  in  all  the  best  speech  of 
man  have  been  used  to  describe  it,  the  very 
words  themselves  shall  break  and  be  as  dust,  and 
every  phrase  shall  be  as  a  beggar  pleading  for 
better  garmenting  and  richer  form  to  hide  his 
nakedness;  because  no  word  can  describe,  no 
tongue  can  speak  the  glory  of  that  wondrous 
hour  when  Jesus  and  His  blood  redeemed,  spirit 
regenerated,  and  exalted  Church  shall  come 
forth  to  reign. 

This,  and  all  the  glories  that  are  to  follow  are 
the  consequence  of  the  Blessed  Hope. 

But,  not  only  does  grace  set  the  hope  before 
us,  it  teaches  us  the  attitude  to  take  as  Christians 
now,  in  respect  to  that  hope. 


434  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

It  teaches  us  to  be  "expecting,"  to  be  ready 
and  waiting  in  our  day  as  though,  at  any  mo- 
tnent,  the  Lord  might  come. 

Human  wisdom  does  not  teach  that. 

Human  wisdom  and  human  conceit  will  give 
us  calendars  and  dates  and  times ^  bidding  us  be 
busy  with  theui  and  not  with  Him. 

But  we  are  to  be  "expecting"  the  Lord.  That 
is  the  meaning  of  the  word,  "looking." 

What  utter  betrayal  of  language,  what  sheer 
and  shameful  accusation  it  brings  against  the 
apostle,  nay,  against  the  Holy  Ghost  Himself 
who  inspired  the  apostle,  to  say  "expecting" 
this  hope  means  we  are  to  be  looking  for  signs, 
for  predicted  events,  studying  the  map,  figuring 
out  times  and  seasons,  putting  up  tribulations 
and  wars,  even  the  thickness  of  a  shadow  between 
ourselves  and  the  Coming  of  the  Lord. 

If  "expecting"  the  blessed  hope  does  not 
mean  the  Lord  may  come  to  make  good  that 
hope  while  we  are  expecting,  then  has  the  apos- 
tle deceived  us  wilfully,  cruelly,  brutally,  or 
himself  has   been   helplessly  deceived   and   the 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  435 

whole  scheme  and  concept  of  the  Blessed  Hope 
falls  to  the  ground  as  a  worthless  delusion  and 
contemptible  snare. 

If  the  word,  "looking,"  "expecting,"  means 
anything  within  the  range  and  realm  of  human 
intelligence  and  decent,  undeniable  sincerity,  it 
means — IMMINENCY. 

It  means,  expecting  the  Lord  Himself  as  the 
Hope  which  makes  hoping  for  Him — blessed. 

It  means  logically  and  legitimately  living 
from  day  to  day  in  the  confidence  and  the  hope 
He  might  come  any  day. 

Grace  teaches  us  to  rise  above  every  hin- 
drance, every  object  that  may  be  thrust  in  the 
way. 

I  knew  a  wife  who  waited  for  the  coming  of 
her  husband,  and  when  trains  failed  to  bring 
him  and  time  passed  and  wise  people  shook  their 
heads  and  said  it  was  no  longer  worth  while  to 
wait,  she  cpntinued  to  wait  and  expect.  He  had 
bidden  her  to  watch  for  his  return  any  day. 
Love  and  hope  and  yearning  desire  for  him 
taught  her  to  wait  and  expect.     And  at  last,  in 


43 6  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

spite  of  all  the  clear  deductions  against  his  any 
day  coming,  he  came  at  last  and  her  expectation 
was  fulfilled;  not  only  fulfilled,  but  all  the 
while  she  waited,  and  hoped  and  yearned  and 
loved,  there  had  deepened  in  her  heart  her  sense 
of  all  he  was  to  her,  her  need  of  him;  so  that, 
in  the  hour  of  fulfillment  she  was  able  to  pour 
forth  the  long-pent-up  wealth  and  worth  of  her 
waiting  and  expectant  love. 

Grace  teaches  us  to  hold  that  attitude  toward 
the  Blessed  Hope. 

It  teaches  us  to  hold  it  as — a  hope,  not  merely 
as  a  doctrine. 

It  is  doctrine  and  is  true  whether  you  hold  it 
or  reject  it;  but  grace  will  teach  you  to  hold  it 
as  a  hope;  to  hold  it  as  a  hope  deep  down  in 
your  very  soul,  hoping  every  day  that  in  that  day 
it  may  be  realized  for  you. 

He  who  treats  it  simply  as  a  doctrine,  soon 
loses  it  as  a  hope,  and  presently  will  be  occupied 
in  finding  reasons  why  it  will  not  come  in  his 
day,  or  must  be  delayed  many  days. 

Listen  to  the  teachers  who  deny  it  as  an  any 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  437 

day  possibility  or  hope  and  you  will  find  the 
thought  of  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  does  not  af- 
fect or  shape  their  daily  lives. 

They  are  simply  doctrinaires,  not  those  who 
mould  and  fashion  their  lives  by  daily  hope. 

But  mark,  I  pray  you,  the  benefit  of  this  hope 
to  those  who  hold  it  as  such. 

It  is  as  an  helmet;  so  it  is  written: 

"But  let  us,  who  are  of  the  day  (Christians, 
saved  people),  be  sober,  putting  on  the  breast- 
plate of  faith  and  love;  and  for  an  helmet,  the 
hope  of  salvation." 

What  is  the  salvation  for  which  as  Christians, 
as  saved  people,  we  are  to  hope? 

Surely,  after  having  just  written  to  the  Thes- 
salonians  that  they  were  "children  of  light"  and 
therefore  saved  (as  he  says  corroboratively,  in- 
cluding himself  with  them,  "God  has  not  ap- 
pointed us  to  wrath,  but  to  obtain  salvation,") 
in  speaking  of  the  "hope"  of  salvation  the  apostle 
could  not  have  intended  to  raise  any  question  of 
uncertainty  in  respect  to  their  present  salvation. 

What  then  does  he  mean  by  "hope  of  salva- 
tion?" 


438  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  his  epistle  to  the 
Romans.    He  says: 

''Now  is  our  salvation  nearer  than  when  we 
believed. 

"The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand." 

He  is  speaking  of  the  salvation  which  will 
come  in  the  Day  of  Christ;  and  as  the  day  of 
Christ  begins  with  the  Coming  of  Christ  for  His 
Church,  then  the  salvation  hoped  for  is  that 
which  will  take  place  at  the  Coming  of  Christ. 

That  salvation  is  not  in  respect  to  the  soul,  but 
— the  body. 

Salvation  is  threefold:  for  us,  in  us  and 
upon  us. 

For  us — on  the  cross. 

In  us — by  regeneration. 

Upon  us — by  the  resurrection  of  the  bodies  of 
the  Christian  dead,  and  the  transfiguration  of 
the  bodies  of  the  Christian  living. 

This  salvation  of  the  body  unto  immortality  is 
accomplished  at  the  Coming  of  the  Lord  for 
His  Church;  and  as  the  Coming  of  tlie  Lord  is 
— the  blessed  hope  of  the  Church,  then  the  Com- 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  439 

ing  of  the  Lord  to  deliver,  immortalize  and  save 
the  bodies  of  those  who  form  the  Church  is  the 
salvation  the  apostle  bids  us  to  hope  for,  and 
which  he  declares  is  as  an  helmet. 

You  know  the  Greek  and  Roman  helmet! 

With  that  great  high  ridge  running  through 
the  center  of  the  casque  the  blow  of  sword  or 
spear  fell  slanting  and  glanced  away  an  in- 
efficient, harmless  stroke. 

Just  so  I  have  this  blessed  hope  as  though 
there  were  an  helmet  on  my  head. 

All  sorts  of  blows  come,  questions  and  prob- 
lems that  cannot  be  solved  and  ever  return,  de- 
manding and  insisting  on  solution:  the  question 
of  sin,  of  culture,  of  education,  of  life  and 
death,  of  the  being  and  character  of  God  in  the 
face  of  human  sin,  suffering  and  woe;  a  thou- 
and  askings  that  find  no  answer.  Questions, 
which,  if  persisted  in  would  crush  the  brain, 
break  the  heart  and  leave  you  mad  with  cursing, 
agony,  and  despair;  but  all  these  questions 
and  their  insidious  poison  strokes  fall  harmlessly 
on  my  head;   for,  at  once,  I  answer,  every  ques- 


440  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

tion,  every  problem,  every  difficulty  in  life  will 
be  settled  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  by  the  Com- 
ing of  the  Lord. 

What  hope  have  I  when  I  look  out  upon  all 
the  mystery,  misery,  sorrow,  anguish,  shame,  and 
wrong,  and  all  the  helplessness  of  man  to  meet 
and  settle  things? 

You  ask  that? 

When  I  see  the  costly  breakdown  and  failure 
of  government  in  the  hand  of  man;  when  I  see 
the  rending  and  tearing  to  pieces  of  the  banner 
of  civilization  and  learn  that  culture  is  a  thin 
veneer  that  for  a  moment  hides  the  brute  beast 
in  human  kind — what  hope  have  I? 

What  hope  have  I  when  I  see  a  world  to-day 
soaked  in  blood  and  tears,  and  ghastly  horror 
keeping  vigil  at  the  blackened  hearthstones  of 
one  time  happy  homes? 

What  hope  have  I,  you  ask,  in  the  midst  of 
all  this? 

I  answer: 

The  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

That  is  my  hope,  that  is  the  one  thing  that  wiU 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  441 

solve  the  problems  and  bring  eternal  rest  for  a 
tumult  tossed  and  troubled  world. 

That  is  my  hope  and  this  hope  the  Holy  Spirit 
writes  is — blessed. 

It  is  an  helmet  which  saves  my  head,  my 
brain,  my  heart  from  all  the  questioning,  mad- 
dening blows,  keeps  me  sound  and  sane,  stand- 
ing steadfast  and  with  peace,  even  where  con- 
flicts rage. 

Mark  the  benefit  of  holding  this  Coming  of 
the  Lord  as  an  imminent  fact  and  hope: 

It  is  written: 

"And  every  one  that  hath  this  hope  in  (upon) 
him  purifieth  himself,  even  as  he  is  pure." 

You  know  if  you  found  yourself  in  the  pres- 
ence of  some  one  very  courteous,  very  refined,  of 
finished  manners  and  discoverd  you  were  not  so 
well  equipped  and  furnished,  when  you  retired 
to  the  privacy  of  your  own  home  you  would  take 
yourself  to  strict  account  and  determine  when 
next  you  met  you  would  seek  to  stand  on  equal 
plane.  You  would  make  an  effort  in  that  di- 
rection. 


442  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

Hold  this  Coming  of  the  Lord  as  an  actual 
hope  within  your  soul.  Say  within  your  inmost 
self  you  wish  He  would  come;  fall  on  your 
knees  and  pray;  with  the  Spirit  and  the  Bride 
say,  "Come,"  lift  up  the  closing  prayer,  the  last 
recorded  prayer  of  Holy  Scripture :  "Even  so, 
come,  Lord  Jesus;"  do  this  and  mean  it  sin- 
cerely, and  sooner  or  later  you  will  find  that  al- 
most unconsciously  and  involuntarily  you  are 
seeking  to  purify  yourself  from  evil  thought  and 
impulse,  making  whole-souled  and  earnest  en- 
deavor to  be  clean,  to  be  true  within,  to  live  upon 
the  Christly  plane. 

You  put  on  your  best  garments  for  an  expected 
guest. 

Expect  Christ  and  you  will  clothe  yourself 
with  holiness,  with  purity  and  truth. 

Hold  this  Coming  of  the  Lord  as  an  actual 
hope  and  it  will  inspire  you  to  redoubled  service 
in  His  name. 

If  you  wish  Him  to  come,  if  you  believe  He 
might  come  at  any  time,  you  would  not  be  con- 
tent that  He  should  find  you  doing  nothing  in 
His    name.      If   you   were   an   employee    and 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  443 

wasted  your  employer's  paid  for  time;  if  he 
came  and  found  you  using  that  time  for  yourself 
alone  you  would  be  discharged  and  put  to  shame. 
To  be  doing  nothing  when  the  Lord  comes,  using 
the  time  He  paid  for  with  His  blood  for  your- 
self and  not  for  Him,  you  would  be  filled  with 
the  sense  of  shame. 

Hold  this  Coming  as  a  hope,  believe  it  really 
as  the  Word  of  God,  as  the  Son  of  God  Himself 
declares  it  to  be — imminent,  and  you  will  be 
impelled  to  do  ail  your  hands  find  to  do  and 
with  all  your  might. 

This  blessed  hope  is  an  incentive  to  work,  to 
serve  the  Lord  and  a  quickening  impulse  to  seek 
and  save  the  souls  of  men;  in  short  to  live,  to 
make  tremendous  effort  to  live  and  manifest  the 
life  of  Christ. 

Where  were  you  last  night,  you  who  profess 
to  be  a  follower  of  Christ? 

Were  you  at  the  theatre,  the  dance,  the  card 
party;  were  you  side  by  side  with  those  v^ho 
were  not  Christians  and  who,  from  your  conver- 
sation did  not  know  or  even  imagine  you  were 
Christians? 


444  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

What  if  the  Lord  should  come  to-morrow? 
Who  can  measure  the  horror  of  awakening  that 
would  be  yours  to  see  these  very  friends  and 
pleasure  companions  shut  out  to  the  endless  woe 
and  you  saved  in  spite  of  all  your  treasonable 
inconsistency  because  the  Lord  kept  faith  with 
the  covenant  of  the  blood  you  once  had  claimed? 

But — listen — listen  well — not  all  who  profess, 
not  all  who  say  Lord,  Lord,  are  saved.  There 
are  things  which  accompany  salvation  and  those 
who  are  really  saved  have  more  or  less  of  those 
accompanying  things.  It  might  be,  after  all,  in 
spite  of  your  profession  your  outbreaking  in- 
consistency would  prove  that  you  were  a  mere 
professor  and  not  an  actual  possessor;  that  if 
the  Lord  should  come  and  you  had  not  repented 
and  changed  your  way  you  would  be  left  behind 
with  your  godless  company  to  judgment  and  to 
woe. 

O,  if  you  are  true,  if  you  are  genuine,  if  you 
really  wish  the  Lord  to  come,  if  you  believe  the 
time  is  short,  it  will  move  you  to  go  forth,  speak 
the  Word  in  season  and  lead  the  unsaved,  the 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE  445 

thoughtless  and  the  lost  to  a  seeking  Saviour's 
feet. 

And  now  listen  to  me! 

One  of  the  joys  I  anticipate  in  that  hour  when 
I  shall  be  caught  up  to  meet  the  Lord  is  the  joy 
of  meeting  those  who  have  heard  me  preach, 
who  have  believed  the  Word  and  have  been 
made  one  with  a  living  Christ. 

In  the  long  years  of  my  ministry  thousands 
have  thronged  before  me.  What  joy  if  I  shall 
meet  them  and  have  them  tell  me  that  some 
simple  word  I  uttered  in  the  Master's  name 
helped  to  turn  their  faces  to  the  God  I  serve. 

But— there  is  sometimes  a  horror  of  black- 
ness and  great  darkness  comes  over  my  soul  as 
I  look,  as  I  do  to-night,  at  this  great  throng  and 
ask  myself  the  question — "Will  all  these  meet 
me  at  the  throne  of  peace  and  light  inside  the 
upper  city's  gates?  or  when  I  shall  sit  in  asso- 
ciated judgment  with  the  saints  of  God  in  that 
last  and  awful  judgment  hour  at  the  Great 
White  Throne,  will  I  see  some  such  as  you  who 
have  heard  me  preach?  shall  I  see  you  stand 
with  downcast  eyes  and  speechless  lips,  and  shall 


446  THE  BLESSED  HOPE 

I  hear  above  you  sound  the  awful  word — ^'De- 
part?" 

O,  it  is  that  I  cannot  bear  to  think  upon  and  I 
plead  with  you  here  and  now  to  arouse  before 
too  late. 

If  Christ  the  Lord  came  to-night  you  would 
be  left  out  to  certain  woe;  for  you  there  w^ould 
be,  indeed,  no  gleam  of  hope,  only  one  long  mid- 
night of  starless  despair. 

Turn  then  to  Him  who  bids  you  come.  He 
who  in  rare  and  gracious  words  has  said :  "Him 
that  Cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out;" 
who  no  matter  what  you  may  have  been  or  done 
will  never  say  you  nay. 

Turn  and  claim  the  shelter  of  the  blood  and 
with  those  of  us  who  hold  the  Blessed  Hope,  and 
hold  it  as  a  hope,  rise  to  meet  Him  when  He 
comes  and  be  with  Him  and  the  happy  company 
of  the  gathered  saints  forever  more. 

Let  grace  then  save  you  now^,  let  grace  teach 
you  how  to  live  and  let  grace  lead  you  day  by 
day  to  be  ^'looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  and 
the  glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 


VII 
THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 


The  Great  Separation. 


My  theme  to-night  is: 

''The  Great  separation  that  will  take  place 
when  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  comes  for  His 
Church." 

My  texts  are  three  in  number: 

(Mat.  7:  21-23;  Lu.  13-25;  Mat.  13:47,48.) 

"Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord, 
Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  heaven; 
but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  My  Father  in 
heaven." 

"Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord, 
have  we  not  prophesied  in  Thy  name?  and  in 
thy  name  have  cast  out  devils?  and  in  Thy  name 
done  many  wonderful  works? 

"And  then  will  I  profess  unto  them,  I  never 
knew  you;  depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  ini- 
quity." 

"When  once  the  master  of  the  house  is  risen 
up,  and  hath  shut  to  the  door,  saying.  Lord, 
Lord,  open  unto  us;  and  he  shall  answer  and 
say  unto  you,  I  know  not  whence  ye  are." 


450  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

"The  Kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  a  net, 
that  was  cast  into  the  sea,  and  gathered  of  every 
kind: 

'Which,  when  it  was  full,  they  drew  to  shore, 
and  sat  down,  and  gathered  the  good  into  ves- 
sels, but  cast  the  bad  away." 

Out  of  these  texts  I  present  to  you  four  prop- 
ositions: 

1.  In  this  age  God  is  calling  upon,  and  giv- 
ing an  opportunity  to  all  to  profess  faith  in  the 
name  of  His  Son. 

2.  There  is  a  profession  of  Christ  which  gives 
all  the  evidences  of  being  genuine  and  accept- 
able to  God. 

3.  There  is  a  profession  which  gives  no  evi- 
dence of  being  genuine. 

4.  A  great  separation  will  take  place  when 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  comes  down  into  the  air 
to  receive  His  Church  unto  Himself. 

I.  In  this  age  God  is  calling  upon  and  giving 
opportunity  to  all  to  profess  faith  in  the  name  of 
His  Son. 

The  history  of  the  world  has  been  divided  of 


THE  6REAT  SEPARATION  45  i 

God  into  distinct  ages  or  epochs,  each  with  its 
definite  beginning  and  ending. 

God  the  Father  set  apart  and  ordained  these 
ages  by  the  pre-incarnate  action  of  His  son;  as 
it  is  written:    ^^By  whom  he  made  the  worlds." 

"Worlds"  here  signify  and  should  be  ren- 
dered, "ages." 

The  word  "made"  has  the  sense  of  "ar- 
ranged." 

By  and  through  His  Son,  therefore,  God  the 
Father  planned  the  successive  ages  of  His  deal- 
ing with  man.  In  other  words,  the  history  of 
man  is  not  an  accident.  It  lies  within  the  infinite 
purpose  of  God  and  moves  on  as  He  intended 
from  age  to  age,  and  will  steadily  and  surely 
move  to  the  consummation  of  the  age  of  the 
ages. 

These  ages  are  seven  in  number  and  in  each 
God  acts  in  ways  distinct  and  peculiar  to  that 
age. 

The  First  begins  with  the  creation  of  man  and 
ends  with  his  fall  and  expulsion  from  Eden. 

It  is  the  Edenic  age,  or  age  of  Innocency. 

In  it  God  deals  with  man  as  a  creature  with- 


452  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

out  antecedent  or  predisposition,  and  as  inno- 
cent. 

He  deals  with  him  on  the  basis  of  the  tree  of 
the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  the  fruit  of 
which  he  is  forbidden  to  eat. 

The  issue  is — Obedience  to  God. 

If  he  will  obey  the  Word  and  command  of 
God  he  shall  have  eternal  life,  an  immortal 
body,  he  shall  be  enthroned  of  God.  His  visi- 
bility and  incarnation. 

It  is  the  forecast,  the  promise  and  the  outline 
of  The  Incarnation.  It  is  the  outreach  of  the 
living  God  to  become  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 

If  the  man  disobey  he  shall  die.  He  shall  be 
separated  from  God  morally  and  intellectually. 
The  Spirit  and  soul  shall  be  separated  from  the 
body.  The  body  shall  return  to  the  dust  from 
whence  it  was  taken.  He  himself,  finally,  shall 
wander  through  endless  spaces,  lost  forever,  a 
wandering  star  unto  whom  is  reserved  the  black- 
ness of  darkness  forever. 

The  Devil  tempts.  He  raises  a  doubt  concern- 
ing the  truth  of  God's  Word.  He  suggests  that 
man,  if  he  eat  will  not  die.     He  shall  be  as 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  453 

God.  They  shall,  like  God,  create  beings  in 
their  own  image.  They  shall  be  independent  of 
God.  The  woman  yields,  the  man  partakes, 
death  begins  and  they  go  forth  from  the  sunset 
side  of  Eden  to  fill  the  world  with  sin  and  sor- 
row and  lie  down  at  last  in  the  grave  that  waits 
for  them. 

The  second  age  begins  with  the  birth  of  Cain 
and  ends  with  the  flood. 

//  is  the  Antediluvian  Age,  or  the  Age  of  Con- 
science. 

Adam  begets  a  son  in  his  own  image,  but  it  is 
the  image  of  a  fallen  man. 

The  woman  was  mistaken  in  the  birth  of  Cain. 
She  thought  he  was  the  promised  seed,  the  com- 
ing deliverer. 

She  gave  birth  to  Abel,  her  second  son. 

The  first  was  a  tiller  of  the  earth.  The  second 
a  keeper  of  sheep. 

God  takes  ofif  all  law.  He  shuts  man  up  to 
conscience.*  (Conscience  is  not  the  gift  of  God. 
It  is  not  His  endowment.  It  is  the  logical  con- 
sequence of  the  fall  of  man  and  comes  in  thereby. 


454  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

It  is  the  self  accusation  of  sin.  It  is  the  shadow 
of  God's  judgment  throne  on  the  soul.) 

Cain  kills  his  brother. 

God  sets  aside  the  penalty  for  murder. 

The  evil,  the  sin  and  lawlessness  now  inherent 
in  man  become  so  great  God  is  forced  to  drown 
the  whole  world,  all  but  Noah  and  his  family, 
who  are  saved  in  and  by  an  ark  ordained  of  God. 

The  third  age  begins  with  the  going  forth  of 
Noah  and  his  family  from  the  ark  and  ends 
with  the  death  of  Joseph  in  Egypt. 

It  is  the  Patriarchial  age — from  Pater,  father, 
and  Archon,  ruler.     The  age  of  the  father  rulers. 

God  tests  man  in  the  relation  of  the  family. 

He  sets  up  government  in  and  for  the  family 
and  rulership  by  the  father. 

He  now  legislates  the  death  penalty  for  mur- 
der, "Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood  by  man  shall 
his  blood  be  shed." 

Justice  and  righteousness  are  to  be  adminis- 
tered in  the  earth. 

Ordained  government  in  the  hand  of  man  is 
given  the  right  to  take  life,  to  magnify  law,  jus- 
tice and  righteousness. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  455 

Government  is  based  on  atonement  by  blood 
— life  for  a  life.  The  individual  patriarchs 
stand  for  distinct  and  individual  truth. 

Noah  represents  grace  from  God.  ''Noah," 
it  is  written,  "found  grace  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord." 

Abraham  is  the  fruit  of  grace — the  place  and 
exercise  of  faith. 

Isaac  is  the  fruit  of  faith,  and  that  is — Son- 
ship. 

Jacob  is  the  fruit  of  sonship — that  is  service 
(faith  is  shown  by  works) . 

Joseph  is  the  fruit  of  service — that  is,  first, 
suffering,  and  then,  glory. 

The  fourth  age  begins  with  the  going  of  the 
children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt  and  ends  with 
the  coming  of  John  the  Baptist;  as  it  is  written : 
*'The  law  and  the  prophets  were  until  John." 

//  is  the  Mosaic  age,  or  the  age  of  the  law. 

The  people  of  Israel  are  chosen  of  God  as 
His  peculiar  people,  the  one  and  only  divine  na- 
tion. They  are  brought  nigh  on  the  ground  of 
blood.  By  blood  they  are  redeemed  from  the 
sentence     against     the    first-born.       They     are 


45  6  The  great  separation 

brought  out  of  Egypt  by  the  hand  of  power. 
They  are  set  on  their  course  to  the  promised 
land. 

At  Sinai  they  turn  away  from  the  uncondi- 
tional covenant  of  Abraham  which  guaranteed 
them  the  land.  They  put  themselves  under  the 
covenant  of  the  law. 

In  Israel,  therefore,  God  is  testing  man  na- 
tionally, in  responsibility  to  government,  and 
under  bond  to  law. 

The  fifth  age  begins  with  the  baptism  of  our 
Lord  by  John  in  Jordan  and  ends  at  the  cross. 

//  is  the  Messianic  age,  or  the  age  of  God 
made  visible  and  incarnate. 

God  tests  the  character  of  the  natural  man  by 
the  supernatural  character  of  His  Son. 

Man  proves  himself  to  have  the  Cain  spirit 
of  murder.  He  commits  deicide  by  slaying  God 
in  the  person  of  His  human  as  well  as  Divine 
Son. 

The  seventh  age  will  begin  with  the  coming 
of  Christ  and  all  His  saints  from  heaven  to  set 
up  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  will  end  with  the 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  457 

Great  White  Throne,  the  second  resurrection 
and  the  second  death. 

This  is  the  Millennial  age,  or  the  age  of  the 
kingdom.  In  it  God  tests  man  with  a  perfect 
government  in  the  hand  of  a  perfect  and  right- 
eous King. 

He  looses  Satan,  who  had  been  bound  during 
the  thousand  years,  that  he  may  reveal  the  unre- 
generate  in  the  kingdom.  They  rebel  against 
God  and  are  destroyed  by  fire  from  heaven. 

The  Christless  dead  of  all  ages  are  judged  at 
the  White  Throne.  The  death  sentence  pro- 
nounced in  Eden  finds  its  consummation. 
Through  gates  of  fire  the  lost  soul  passes  out  a 
bodiless  ghost  to  its  eternal  wanderings  in  unil- 
lumined  space,  to  join  the  first  rebels  of  the  pre- 
Adamite  race. 

The  eighth  and  final  age  begins  with  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth  and — never  ends. 

This  is  the  eternal  state,  or  the  age  of  the  end- 
less years  and  the  accomplished  purpose  of  God 
in  man. 

The  earth  is  regenerated,  created  anew  out  of 
the  womb  of  fire,  born  into  a  new  orbit  under 


458  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

new  and  life-filled  heavens,  and  becomes  the 
dwelling  place  of  man  and  incarnate  God. 

Man  is  fully  linked  to  Godhead. 

He  is  the  multiplied  and  eternal  incarnation 
of  God. 

The  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily  is  mani- 
fested in  Christ.  With  Christ  dwelling  upon  it 
the  earth  becomes  the  moral,  governmental  and 
spiritual  center  of  the  universe.  Of  the  increase 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  Christ,  and  man  in 
God  and  Christ  there  shall  be  no  end. 

The  sixth  age  is  the  age  in  which  we  now  live. 

It  began  secretly  when  Christ  rose  from  the 
dead,  breathed  on  His  disciples  and  gave  them 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

It  began  publicly  on  the  day  of  Pentecost 
when  the  ascended  Christ  endued  the  Church 
with  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  will  end 
secretly  (and  may  end  at  any  moment)  by  the 
coming  of  Christ  into  the  air  FOR  His  Church. 

It  will  end  publicly  when  the  translated 
Church  shall  come  WITH  Christ  to  begin  the 
kingdom. 

This  age  differs  from  all  which  preceded  it. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  459 

It  differs  from  those  which  shall  follow  it. 

In  this  age  God  is  not  calling  upon  men  to  be- 
lieve in  His  existence  as  a  personal  God. 

There  is  no  need  that  He  should  do  so. 

In  yonder  nightly  sky  His  name  is  written  in 
each  shining  star.  Each  star  is  but  a  letter  in 
the  syllabication  of  His  name.  Each  mountain 
peak  of  earth,  each  river  slipping  to  the  sea,  the 
sea  thundering  on  the  shore,  each  blade  of  grass 
and  growing,  fruited  tree,  the  succession  of  day 
and  night,  the  sequence  of  the  seasons,  every- 
where the  adaptation  of  means  to  an  end,  every- 
where the  operation  revealing  intent,  purpose, 
thought,  and  back  of  the  thought  the  unfailing 
Thinker,  the  old  earth  flying  on  its  course  about 
the  sun  and  returning  whence  it  came  to  start 
afresh,  law,  order,  authority,  power,  all  pro- 
claim the  living,  the  uncaused,  the  eternal,  self- 
existent,  self-sufficient  and  ever  efficient  God. 

There  is  no  need  to  invite  men  to  believe  in  a 
supreme,  personal  being.  Only  a  fool  in  his  heart 
(never  in  the  brain)  can  say  there  is  no  God. 
The  apostle  Paul  arraigns  the  beautiful  and  cor- 
rupt civilization  of  his  day  and  declares  its  idol- 


'  460  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

atry,  its  paganism,  without  excuse  because  the 
might,  the  majesty  and  the  power  of  God  are 
seen  in  the  work  and  manifestation  of  an  all- 
surrounding  creation. 

God  is  not  calling  on  men  to  believe  in  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

There  is  no  need  that  He  should. 

The  operation  and  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
manifested  every  day  in  contrast  to  the  spirit  of 
lawlessness,  wickedness,  evil  and  the  mad  riot 
of  sin  which  would  win  its  way  were  it  not  for 
the  hindering  and  pervading  presence  of  this 
same  Holy  Spirit. 

God  is  not  dealing  with  men  to-day  on  the 
issue  of  sin. 

He  gave  His  estimate  of  man  as  a  sinner  long 
ago,  as  a  sinner  by  nature  and  by  transgression. 

He  enforced  His  estimate  by  the  flood  which 
swept  away  all  but  the  chosen  and  selected  eight. 

He  emphasized  and  culminated  that  judg- 
ment in  the  cross.  On  the  cross  He  judged  the 
natural  man  and  his  world. 

The  cry  of  agony  from  the  divine  victim,  "My 
God,  My  God,  why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me?" 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  461 

tells  the  doom  which  would  now  fall  upon  the 
world  did  not  the  cross  hold  back  the  individual 
judgment  and  permit  men  to  live  under  the 
grace  of  a  suspended  sentence. 

Did  God  deal  with  man  on  the  issue  of  sin 
but  for  a  single  day,  all  would  be  driven  from 
His  presence  and  the  glory  of  His  power.  The 
issue  now  is  not  mans  sin — but,  God's  love. 

The  great,  the  all-important,  the  one  supreme 
question  is  not  the  sin  question  at  all,  but — the 
Son  question. 

"What  think  ye  of  Christ?" 

That  is  the  question  the  Son  Himself  asked. 

That  is  the  question  God  the  Father  is  asking. 

"What  think  ye  of  My  Son?" 

He  is  sending  the  Church  out  to  ask  that  ques- 
tion. 

That  is  why  the  Church  has  been  created,  and 
this  is  its  function  and  mission,  to  set  the  issue 
squarely  up  to  every  soul  and  ask  insistently, 
probingly,  "What  think  ye  of  Christ?  Whose 
Son  is  He?" 

The  Church  is  commanded  in  this  age  (and 
this  age  has  been  marked  out  and  set  apart  that 


462  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

the  Church  might  fulfill  the  command)  ;  the 
Church  is  commanded  to  climb  the  mountains, 
cross  the  plains,  search  the  valleys,  sail  the  seas, 
tread  the  wilderness,  enter  villages,  towns  and 
cities,  and  ask  of  every  creature  in  all  the  w^de 
world  what  each  one  thinks  of  Christ. 

By  and  through  the  Church  and  the  Gospel 
committed  to  its  charge  God  is  calling  on  men 
to  believe  in  His  Son,  to  believe  on  Him  at  once 
— without  delay. 

He  is  not  asking  men  to  believe  in  His  Son  as 
a  mere  man. 

He  was  a  real  man. 

He  began  His  human  life  as  a  babe.  He  lay 
upon  a  woman's  breast  with  a  babe's  need  and  a 
babe's  weakness.  He  grew  in  strength  of  body, 
in  stature,  in  knowledge  and  favor  with  men. 

He  worked  and  toiled  as  a  man.    He  wrought 
as  a  carpenter.     He  earned  His  bread  in  the  , 
sweat  of  His  brow.  ■ 

He  went  forth  at  thirty  years  of  age  to  preach' 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He  was  led  by  the 
Spirit.  He  surrendered  to  the  Spirit.  He  had 
all  the  experiences  of  men.     He  was  tempted. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  463 

He  was  sorely  tried.  He  hungered.  He  thirst- 
ed. He  grew  tired  and  weary.  He  endured 
poverty.  The  foxes  had  holes,  the  birds  had 
nests.  There  were  times  when  He  knew  not 
where  to  lay  His  head. 

He  was  sensitive.  When  they  brought  Him 
the  woman  taken  in  sin,  He  bent  down  to  hide 
the  blush  upon  His  virgin  cheek  and  wrote  with 
His  fingers  in  the  sand  the  worthlessness  because 
of  the  hypocrisy  of  their  charge. 

He  was  full  of  sympathy.  He  wept  at  Laz- 
arus' grave.  He  was  moved  with  compassion  for 
the  troubled  and  the  heavy  laden.  He  was  so 
keenly  sensitive  that  when  they  came  to  arrest 
Him,  He  protested,  not  at  the  arrest,  but  at  the 
manner  of  it.  He  said  He  had  openly  taught  in 
their  synagogue.  He  had  done  nothing  in  secret. 
Why  then  should  they  come  out  against  Him 
with  lanterns  and  staves,  as  though  they  had 
come  out  against  a  thief? 

He  drank  deeply  of  the  cup  of  sorrow.  He 
said,  "My  soul  .  is  exceeding  sorrowful  unto 
death." 

He  died  as  other  men  die.    He  was  wrapped 


464  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

in  a  shroud  and  laid  in  the  grave  as  others  are 
laid. 

He  was  a  real  man. 

The  record  is  plain  enough. 

But  God  is  not  sending  the  Church  out  speci- 
fically and  supremely  to  demonstrate  that,  to  ask 
men  to  believe  that. 

He  is  not  calling  on  men  to  believe  in  Him 
merely  as  a  good  man. 

He  ivas  all  that! 

He  was  much  more  than  good. 

He  was  sinless. 

He  was  a  sinless  man. 

He  stands  out  in  contrast  to  natural  men  as  a 
white,  polished  marble  shaft  might  rise  up  out 
of  the  midst  of  a  black,  tossing  midnight  sea;  as 
a  white  rose  in  the  midst  of  scarlet  poppies ;  as  a 
song  in  the  heart  of  discord;  as  a  blue  space  of 
quiet  sky  in  the  midst  of  encircling,  storm-swept 
clouds;  as  a  smile  of  love  in  contrast  to  a  face 
of  hate.  He  challenged  those  who  knew  Him 
best,  who  came  in  contact  with  Him  every  day, 
who  knew  all  His  goings  out  and  coming  in, 
what  He  was  in  private  and  what  He  was  be- 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  465 

fore  the  crowds  that  followed  Him,  to  convict 
Him  if  they  could  of  a  single  sin,  a  wilful  or  an 
accidental  wrong.  None  took  up  the  challenge 
I  hen.  Across  all  the  shame,  the  falsehood,  the 
conspiracy  and  the  treasons  wrought  in  twenty 
centuries  none  has  taken  it  up  since. 

His  sinlessness.  His  divine.  His  miraculous 
holiness  is  so  self-evident,  so  unimpeachable,  so 
far  above  assault  that  it  needs  no  exhortation  to 
believe  it. 

God  is  not  calling  on  men  to  follow  the  earth- 
ly example  of  His  Son,  to  copy  it  in  order  that 
they  may  be  saved. 

Take  the  best  man  you  know.  The  man 
against  whom  his  most  intimate  friends  can  find 
not  the  slightest  charge;  who  stands  with  all 
shadows  beneath  his  feet;  who  is  so  perfect  that 
his  praise  is  in  every  mouth,  and  place  that  man 
alongside  the  Christ  of  God  and  he  shall  be  as 
unclean,  unwholesome  and  repellant  as  the  black 
stream  of  thick  and  turgid  slime  that  runs  its 
course  in  the  foulest  filled  and  most  repulsive 
ditch.  All  our  righteousness  in  His  sight  are  as 
filthy,  sickening,  germ-laden  rags. 


466  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Take  him  who  has  followed  Christ,  one  who 
has  followed  Him  more  nearly  and  clearly  than 
any  other  on  the  earth,  and  whose  motives  have 
been  sane  and  pure  and  always  loyal,  and  he 
shall  seem  as  near  to  actually  following  and 
being  like  Christ  as  the  crawling  worm  is  to  the 
heaven-flying  meteor. 

Put  the  attainment  of  the  loftiest  human  char- 
acter on  earth  by  His  side  and  it  reaches  to  His 
moral  and  spiritual  elevation  no  nearer  than  the 
grain  of  sand  at  the  bottom  of  the  Alps  is  to  their 
snow-clad  heights. 

God  is  not  calling  on  men  to  match  themselves 
with  Christ  or  make  Him  the  merely  perfect 
human  model  for  their  natural  lives. 

He  is  calling  on  men  to  believe  in  His  Son, 
not  as  He  walked  the  earth  but — As  He  DIED  ON 
THE  CROSS. 

That  cross  was  set  up  in  the  counsels  of  God- 
head before  ever  the  earth  or  the  heavens  were 
formed. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world 
that  He  might  go  to  that  cross. 

The  cross  was  the  objective  of  His  birth. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  4^7 

He  was  born  to  die  on  the  cross. 

The  artist  who  pictured  Him  standing  in  the 
carpenter  shop  at  Nazareth,  in  the  light  of  the 
setting  sun  with  His  hands  outstretched  until 
the  shadow  fell  on  the  opposite  wall  in  the  form 
of  a  cross,  depicted  with  true  perception  the  pur- 
pose of  His  life  and  the  daily  deepening  shadow 
of  the  approaching  fact. 

Continually  He  told  His  disciples  He  was 
going  up  to  Jerusalem  to  be  crucified. 

He  set  His  face  steadfastly  thither. 

He  went  to  that  cross  as  straight  as  the  arrow 
from  the  bow,  as  a  beam  of  light  from  the  sun. 

God  is  calling  men  to  believe  in  His  Son,  His 
Crucified  Son. 

This  was  the  theme  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 

Standing  there  in  Corinth,  surrounded  by 
Greek  culture,  himself  a  scholar,  standing  where 
his  eye  could  take  in  the  scenes  of  classic  inspira- 
tion, and  where  everything  might  tempt  him  to 
parade  his  learning,  his  rhetoric  and  scholastic 
skill,  in  simple  and  downright  terms  he  said: 

"I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among 
you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  Him  crucified." 


468  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Through  the  Church  God  is  calling  men  to 
believe  in — 

Christ  on  the  cross. 

He  is  not  telling  the  Church  to  go  preach  the 
earthly  life  of  Christ  at  all. 

It  is  amazing  that  men,  that  accredited  preach- 
ers with  an  open  Bible,  should  think  so.  Turn 
over  the  sermons  of  the  apostles,  read  their  let- 
ters to  the  churches;  they  are  not  taken  up  with 
how  He  lived  and  what  He  did  on  earth.  No! 
they  are  occupied  with  what  He  did  so  tremen- 
dously and  triumphantly  on  the  cross.  They 
are  possessed,  held  with  amazement  as  well  as 
awe  and  delight  and  overflowing  joy  as  they  con- 
template Him  on  that  cross,  and  pour  out  the 
fulness  of  their  souls  as  they  seek  to  speak  and 
write  about  it. 

God  is  calling  men  to  believe  in  Christ  on  that 
cross  as  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  as  the  antitype  and 
fulfillment  of  all  the  sacrifices  and  offerings  that 
had  gone  before,  as  the  true  burnt  offering,  peace 
offering,  sin  and  trespass  offering. 

He  is  calling  on  men  to  believe  in  the  empty 
grave,  the  light  of  immortality  that  flashes  forth 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  4^9 

in  the  resurrection  of  His  Son;  to  ofifer  Him  as 
the  sacrifice  provided  by  infinite  love  and  meas- 
ureless grace;  to  claim  Him  as  personal  substi- 
tute; to  own  Him  as  Lord,  as  God,  as  Saviour 
and  only  Redeemer. 

This  is  the  invitation. 

This  is  the  function  of  the  Church. 

And  this  is  the  age  in  which  to  fulfill  the  func- 
tion, to  give  broadcast  the  invitation. 

But  it  is  more  than  an  invitation. 

It  is  a  law;  as  much  a  law  as  the  law  of  Sinai. 

You  are  commanded  to  believe  on  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  an  invitation  that  holds  within  it  all  the 
energy  of  a  command.  It  demands  obedience, 
the  obedience  of  faith;   as  it  is  written: 

"The  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  according  to 
the  revelation  of  the  mystery,  which  was  kept 
secret  since  the  world  began.  But  now  is  made 
manifest,  and  by  the  scriptures  of  the  prophets, 
according  to  the  commandment  of  the  everlast- 
ing God,  made  known  to  all  nations  for  the  obe- 
dience of  faith/' 


470  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

It  is  certainly  an  invitation,  a  gracious  invita- 
tion. 

It  is,  beyond  all  doubt,  a  commandment,  an 
insistent  and  absolute  commandment. 

You  have  no  choice  about  it. 

It  is  not  open  to  discussion. 

The  Gospel  does  not  present  a  theme  for  de- 
bate. 

It  is  a  law  legislated  in  agony  and  written  in 
blood. 

The  Christian  minister  as  an  ambassador  of 
Christ  is  authorized  to  utter  it  as  such  and  pre- 
sent it  as  God's  ultimatum  to  the  nations. 

If  you  accept  and  believe  it,  the  results  are 
immediate. 

The  moment  you  believe  you  are  counted  of 
God  as  obedient.  You  may  have  been  the  worst 
of  sinners  and  the  chiefest  of  rebels  against  His 
way  and  will ;  but,  so  soon  as  you  believe  you  are 
reported  at  the  throne  of  God,  no  longer  a  guilty, 
death-doomed  rebel,  but  an  obedient  and  ac- 
cepted son,  your  sins  all  forgiven;  though  they 
may  have  been  as  scarlet  they  are  made  whiter 
than  snow.    You  are  justified,  accepted  as  right- 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  47 1 

eous  before  God;  you  are  made  a  partaker  of 
the  divine  nature;  you  are  indwelt  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  through  Him  linked  up  to  the  body 
of  a  risen  and  glorified  Christ,  made  heir  with 
Him,  coheir  throughout  eternal  ages — you  are 
saved. 

If  you  do  not  believe  the  results  are  just  as 
marked. 

You  have  transgressed  God's  law. 

The  transgression  of  the  law  is  sin. 

You  are  a  sinner  before  God. 

You  may  be  here  to-night  the  whitest  man 
who  ever  lived  upon  the  earth.  You  may  have 
no  yesterdays  to  haunt  you,  no  Nemesis  coming 
with  wool-shod  feet,  with  hammer  and  nail, 
swiftly  behind  you  with  sudden  blow  to  smite 
your  throbbing  temple.  You  may  have  no  fears 
of  to-morrow.  Your  character  may  be  such  that 
men  salute  you  as  you  pass  and  you  yourself  so 
confident  in  your  own  integrity  you  could  look 
unwinkingly  in  the  eyes  of  God,  You  may  be 
all  that  and  yet,  if  here  and  now  I  ask  you  to  be- 
lieve and  accept  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  your 
only  Saviour,  your  Lord  and  God;    if  you  re- 


472  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

« 

spond  to  me  and  say  no,  tell  me  you  have  no 

need  of  Him,  that  you  are  ready  and  willing  to 

stand  on  the  merit  of  your  own  character,  then  I 

tell  you,  if  never  a  sinner  before,  you  are  a  sinner 

now. 

And  not  only  that!  in  God's  sight  you  are  the 
worst  of  sinners.  You  have  committed  sin  great- 
er than  any  other  written  in  the  calendar  of 
many.  Make  no  mistake!  the  sins  that  are  cata- 
logued and  read  and  known  of  men  will  have  to 
be  answered  for.  All  sin  of  every  description 
unpardoned  will  be  punished;  but  great  as  the 
worst  of  other  sins  may  be,  your  sin  is  greater 
than  all  others  combined. 

I  cannot  make  you  believe  it. 

No  archangel  from  heaven  could  make  you 
believe  it.    The  Holy  Ghost  alone  can  do  it. 

He  alone  can  convict  man  of  that  sin  of  all 
sins,  the  sin  supreme, — the  sin  of  refusing  to  be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  own  Him  as 
Saviour  through  His  redeeming  blood. 

That  is  why  the  Holy  Spirit  personally  is 
down  here  in  this  age.  Our  Lord  said  when  the 
Spirit  whom  He  calls  the  Comforter  should 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  473 

come  He  would  convict  the  world  of  sin,  of 
righteousness  and  judgment  to  come. 

And  note  the  words: 

"Of  sin — Because  they  believe  not  on 
Me." 

The  Holy  Ghost  did  not  come  into  the  world 
to  convict  men  of  the  sins  of  lust,  of  lying,  cheat- 
ing, theft,  robbery,  drunkenness,  profanity,  mur- 
der. The  laws  of  the  state  will  do  that.  The  ac- 
cusing remorse  of  a  man's  conscience  will  do 
^hat. 

That  is  not  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

He  came  into  the  world  to  convict  men  of  but 
ONE  SIN^  the  sin  of  sins,  the  sin  of  disbelieving  in 
and  rejecting  Christ,  the  crucified  and  risen  Son 
of  God. 

I  cannot  convict  you  of  this  sin;  but  I  can  tell 
you  why  it  is  the  greatest  of  all  sins. 

What  would  you  say  of  the  man  condemned 
to  die  for  whom  his  fellow  citizens  felt  such 
compassion  that  they  signed  a  protest  and  sent 
out  a  plea  to  the  governor  of  the  state  to  pardon 
him,  to  let  him  even  go  free?  What  would  you 
say  of  that  man  who  when  the  pardon  came, 


474  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

signed  and  sealed  with  the  great  seal  of  the  state, 
when  it  was  handed  to  him,  took  it,  spat  upon  it, 
then  flung  it  in  the  face  of  the  pardon  bearer,  by 
so  doing  flinging  it  in  the  face  of  every  one  who 
had  been  moved  with  sympathy  in  his  behalf; 
by  so  much  not  only  insulted  also  the  governor 
but  the  great  and  worthy  state  he  represented; 
what  would  you  say  of  a  man  who  so  trampled 
on  the  grace  of  men? 

Surely  you  would  have  no  words  with  which 
to  describe  the  shock  it  gave  you,  the  wound 
upon  all  your  human  sensibilities;  certainly 
words  would  fail  you  to  depict  the  shame,  the 
outrage  and  the  added  sin  of  such  an  one. 

And  yet,  that  is  your  attitude,  the  attitude  of 
every  one  who  rejects  the  Son  of  God,  crucified 
and  risen  as  Lord  and  Saviour;  the  attitude  of 
every  one  who  refuses  the  salvation  offered 
through  Him. 

You  take  God's  grace,  you  spit  upon  it  and 
fling  it  back  in  His  face. 

Surely  this  is  sin  and  the  aggravation  of  sin. 
It  is  sin  exceedingly  sinful. 

But  your  sin  is  greater  than  that, 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  475 

What  would  you  say  if  a  man  saw  another 
killed  and  weltering  in  his  blood,  if  he  should 
leap  upon  that  murdered  man;  upon  his  muti- 
lated body  and  grind  it  in  all  its  clotted  crimson 
beneath  his  heel?  Could  you  fittingly  cry  out 
against  the  unspeakable  brutality,  the  beastly 
outrage? 

And  yet  this  is  what  you  do  when  you  reject 
Jesus  Christ  as  God  presents  Him  to  you,  hang- 
ing on  that  Roman  cross. 

The  blood  spilling  out  from  His  fast-nailed 
body  is  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  the  red  seal 
of  the  fore-determined  purpose  of  God.  It  is 
the  most  holy,  the  most  sacred  thing  in  the  uni- 
verse of  God — that  blood  of  Christ. 

When  you  reject  this  crucified  Son  of  God 
you  are  trampling  this  blood  as  it  flows  earth- 
ward under  your  feet  and  counting  it  an  unholy 
and  common  thing. 

Who  may  describe  the  monstrosity  of  such  a 
sin? 

The  angels  of  God  look  at  you  with  amaze- 
ment, pain  and  horror. 

But  you  do  more  than  trample  the  blood  of 


476  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Christ  beneath  your  feet  when  you  refuse  to  ac- 
cept Him. 

The  death  of  Christ  was  either  a  heaven- 
ordained  sacrifice  for  sin,  or  just  an  inconse- 
quential and  brutal  murder. 

If  you  claim  it  as  a  sacrifice  God  will  accept 
it  on  your  behalf  as  an  offering  for  sin. 

If  you  refuse  so  to  claim  it  you  become  a  re- 
jecter of  Christ,  take  sides  with  those  who  cruci- 
fied Him  and  whether  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously justify  the  attitude  of  those  who  killed 
Him,  killing  Him  as  they  did,  for  a  deceiver 
and  blasphemer.  But,  since  He  was  neither  de- 
ceiver nor  blasphemer,  their  action  in  killing 
Him  was  murder;  and  as  you  reject  Christ  be- 
cause you  do  not  believe  in  His  claim  you  be- 
come identified  with  them  aS  rejecters  and  with 
them  guilty  of  murder  in  God's  sight. 

But  mark  the  category  of  this  murder. 

There  is  patricide,  matricide,  sororicide,  sui- 
cide, but  this  is  nothing  less  than — deicide,  the 
murder  of  God. 

The  murder  of  God!    How  is  it  possible? 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION        477 

I  answer: 

The  Son  of  God  was  God  the  Son.  He  took 
humanity  into  union  with  Himself,  a  new,  dis- 
tinct humanity  which  He  Himself  created  for 
Himself  that  in  it  He  might  taste  death  as  a  sac- 
rifice for  every  man.  Through  His  humanity 
then  He  is  either  sacrificed  or  murdered.  When 
you  refuse  Him  as  your  sacrifice,  you  stand, 
whether  intentionally  or  not,  with  those  who 
slew  Him.  He  Himself  has  said  there  is  no 
middle  ground.  If  you  are  not  for  Him  you  are 
against  Him;   as  it  is  written: 

"He  that  is  not  with  me,  is  against  me." 

You  are  guilty  as  an  accessory  to  the  act. 

You — the  rejecter  of  Christ — are  guilty  of  dei- 
cide. 

What  a  sin  of  sins  is  this! 

But  you  do  more  than  join  or  justify  or  be- 
come accessory  to  the  crowd  that  killed  Him. 

You  proclaim  God  to  be  a  liar. 

As  it  is  written: 

"He  that  believeth  not  God  hath  made  him  a 
liar;  because  he  believeth  not  the  record  which 
God  has  given  of  His  Son. 


478  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Every  moment  you  hesitate  to  accept  and  be- 
lieve God's  testimony  concerning  His  Son  you 
proclaim  openly  and  squarely,  in  the  face  of  the 
whole  universe  that  He  is  a  liar. 

Think  of  it!  standing  under  the  high  heavens 
of  God,  walking  about  every  day,  enjoying  His 
providence.  His  mercy  and  care  and  yet,  at  every 
step,  announcing  that — 

God  is  a  liar. 

O  you  who  reject  Jesus  Christ,  who  deliber- 
ately repudiate  Him  from  your  life;  you  who 
reject  the  crucified  Christ  as  the  sacrifice  which 
God  in  His  infinite  mercy  and  grace  offers  you, 
and  pleads  with  you  to  accept,  you  are  the  great- 
est of  all  sinners  on  earth. 

You  are  guilty  of  the  sin  of  sins — Unbelief. 

Atonement  has  been  made  for  every  sin  under 
heaven  but — the  sin  of  unbelief. 

Every  other  sin  under  heaven,  no  matter  how 
black,  may  be  forgiven. 

There  is  no  atonement  for  unbelief. 

There  is  no  possible  forgiveness  for  unbelief. 

God  Himself  cannot  save  an  unbeliever. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  479 

So  great  a  judgment,  you  say,  so  terrific  an 
attitude  for  so  small  a  thing  as  unbelief! 

Small  is  it,  think  you,  this  thing  of  unbelief? 

Unbelief  has  brewed  every  tear  on  earth, 
caused  every  disease,  inspired  and  operated 
every  tragedy,  nerved  the  hand  of  every  w^icked- 
ness.  It  separates  parents  and  children,  hus- 
bands and  wives,  friends  and  comrades,  nation 
from  nation;  breeds  the  viper  of  suspicion,  of 
envy,  jealousy  and  hatred;  lights  the  flame  of 
every  war  and  digs  every  grave.  It  is  lawless- 
ness, anarchy,  repudiation  of  dignities,  the 
breaking  down  of  standards.  It  is  the  father  and 
mother  of  blasphemy,  and  were  it  unchecked, 
would  blot  the  name  of  God  from  every  book, 
would  turn  righteousness  into  unrighteousness, 
virtue  into  vice.  Had  it  all  the  power  it  seeks, 
could  it  accomplish  all  which  its  malevolent 
genius  ordains,  it  would  fling  God  from  His 
very  throne  and  turn  the  universe  into  a  chaos  of 
recriminating,  self-accusing  and  hopeless  hell. 

For  such  a  sin  God,  even  Almighty  God,  has 
no  choice  of  action. 


480  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

For  it  there  can  be  only  judgment,  condemna- 
tion, damnation. 

Thus,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  Gospel 
brings,  not  only  free  and  full  salvation,  but  or- 
dained, definite  and  sure  damnation. 

That  is  what  the  apostle  means  when  he  says 
it  is  a  "savour  of  life  unto  life,  and  of  death  unto 
death." 

It  will  bring  you  to  justification  or  condemna- 
tion. 

There  is  no  place  of  compromise. 

You  cannot  come  into  this  place,  and  hear  this 
Gospel  I  preach  and  then  go  out  as  you  came  in. 

I  am  no  mere  Bible  lecturer.  I  should  con- 
sider such  a  title  a  dishonor.  I  am  an  ambassa- 
dor of  Christ.  I  am  standing  here  not  as  a  de- 
bater, but  as  a  messenger  of  the  Most  High  God. 
I  am  here  to  magnify  my  office.  I  am  here  to 
proclaim  the  truth  whether  men  hear  or  whether 
they  forbear.  This  Gospel  I  am  preaching  to 
you  will  save  you  or  damn  you.  It  will  bring 
you  to  Christ  or  it  will  put  you  in  the  place  of 
those  who  reject  and  crucify  Him. 

This  is  the  reason  why  the  heavens  are  silent. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  4^1 

God  and  the  heaven-host  are  waiting  to  know 
what  you  will  do. 

God  has  done  all  He  can  do  to  make  salvation 
complete. 

You  have  only  to  believe  and  to  receive. 

God  is  patiently  waiting  to  know  what  you 
will  do. 

He  has  called. 

His  very  patience  and  waiting  is  a  call. 

This  is  my  first  proposition : 

God  is  calling  on  all  to  profess  faith  in  the 
name  of  His  Son. 

//.  There  is  a  profession  of  Christ  which 
gives  all  the  evidences  of  being  genuine  and  ac- 
ceptable to  God. 

The  genuine  professor  is  first  and  beyond  all 
things  else — a  believer. 

Any  fool  can  doubt. 

It  requires  neither  intellect  nor  genius  to  dis- 
believe. 

"I  don't  believe  it,"  is  oftentimes  the  response 
a  man  gives  to  a  statement  the  first  time  made  to 
him  upon  some  matter  with  which  he  is  not  ac- 
quainted. 


482  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Unbelief  is  the  common  state. 

Faith  is  the  sign  and  seal  of  divine  election. 

While  it  is  true  faith  cometh  by  hearing  and 
hearing  by  the  Word  of  God,  it  is  also  true  that 
faith,  through  grace  is  the  gift  of  God. 

The  moment  of  faith,  of  genuine  faith,  the  in- 
dividual bears  witness  of  this  endowment  of  God 
and  union  with  Christ. 

It  is  written: 

''He  that  believetJi  hath  life." 

The  genuine  professor  believes  in  the  Bible 
from  cover  to  cover. 

He  believes  in  fiat  creation,  original  sin,  the 
fall  of  man,  the  virgin  birth,  the  atoning  sacri- 
fice, the  resurrection  of  Christ  and  the  whole 
body  of  Christian  doctrine. 

He  believes  in  the  Bible,  not  because  he  is  al- 
ways able  to  reason  about  the  things  it  pro- 
claims, but  because  he  accepts  it  as  the  Word  of 
God.  He  starts  with  that  proposition.  He  rests 
upon  it  as  a  "thus  saith  the  Lord." 

The  genuine  professor  has  been  regenerated. 

God  has  wrought  more  omnipotently  in  him 
than   Vv^hen    He   formed    the   worlds.      He   has 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  483 

wrought  and  formed  within  him  the  very  life 
and  nature  of  His  Son.  He  has  made  him  a 
living,  daily  miracle.  He  has  transformed  his 
body  into  a  temple,  into  the  sacred  blood-re- 
deemed and  blood-washed  shrine  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  He  who  is  the  personal,  essential  holi- 
ness  of  the  Godhead. 

The  genuine  professor  of  Christianity  reverses 
his  old  life. 

He  hates  the  things  he  once  loved. 

He  once  loved  sin.  He  rolled  it  as  a  sweet 
morsel  under  his  tongue.  His  heart  was  a  cage 
of  unclean  and  untamed  things.  He  did  not  love 
the  things  of  God  and  Christ. 

Now  he  hates  sin.  He  hates  the  memory  of 
his  past  life.  It  embitters  and  shames  him  to 
think  of  it.  He  seeks  more  and  more  to  hide  it, 
bury  it  deep  beneath  the  obliterating  blood  of 
Christ.  He  loves  the  things  of  God  and  the 
"way"  of  Christ. 

He  seeks  to  do  the  will  of  God. 

The  one  thing  he  supremely  wishes  to  know  is 
the  mind  of  God, — what  God's  thought  and  will 
concerning  him  may  be. 


4^4  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

He  yields  to  the  Spirit. 

He  seeks  to  bring  forth  the  clustered  fruit  of 
the  Spirit.  His  unceasing  aim  is  to  build  up  a 
character  for  God,  to  become  the  reincarnation 
and  translation  of  Christ  to  men. 

He  loves  the  House  of  God. 

With  the  Psalmist  he  will  say: 

"I  was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me,  let  us  go 
unto  the  house  of  the  Lord." 

He  loves  to  pray. 

Prayer  to  Him  means  something  more  than 
prayer  by  rote.  It  is  true  he  will  bring  his  bur- 
dens and  his  cares  and  spread  them  out  before 
the  Lord.  He  will  call  upon  Him  for  deliver- 
ance and  daily  help;  but  his  true  joy  is  to  go 
into  his  closet,  shut  the  door,  be  alone  with 
God,  talk  to  Him,  pour  out  his  heart,  feel  the 
conscious  response  of  God  in  his  soul,  joy  in  the 
intimate  communion  which  permits  him  to  talk 
with  God,  till,  sometimes  in  the  rapture  of  it 
the  tears  are  on  his  cheek  and  ecstasy  in  his  soul. 

He  loves  the  written  Word  of  God. 

That  Word  to  him  is  as  a  fountain  of  crystal 
water;  it  is  an  oasis  in  the  desert;  it  is  daily  food, 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  4^5 

it  is  bread  from  Heaven;  it  is  light  in  the  spir- 
itual darkness ;  it  is  music ;  it  is  song  in  the  night ; 
it  is  a  harp  touched  by  invisible  fingers;  it  is  a 
trumpet  full  of  the  shouts  of  victory;  it  is  a  tele- 
scope with  which  to  look  into  the  "far  country," 
the  city  of  God  and  the  throne  of  Christ;  it  is 
nexus  with  God;  it  is  a  wireless  telegraph,  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  the  Hertzian  wave,  the  pages  of 
the  Book  the  receiver;  it  is  a  mirror  in  which  he 
may  behold  the  glory  of  the  Lord  and  by  con- 
templation within  it  be  transfigured  into  the 
same  image  from  glory  unto  glory;  it  is  a  uni- 
versity, the  president  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  fac- 
ulty, prophets,  priests  and  kings,  the  curricu- 
lum the  eternal  truth  of  God. 

The  genuine  professor  recognizes  that  he  is 
the  bond  slave  of  Christ. 

He  owns  that  he  has  been  bought  and  paid  for 
with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ.  He  confesses 
that  he  does  not  belong  to  himself  but  wholly  to 
Christ,  all  Ke  has  and  is.  He  gives  Him  his 
time,  his  talent,  his  substance,  and,  above  all, 
himself. 

He  is  a  wo*'ker. 


486  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

He  cannot  comprehend  how  a  Christian  can 
be  redeemed  and  saved,  then  loaf  on  God.  He 
has  no  place  in  his  thought  for  any  one  who 
names  the  name  of  Christ,  then  sits  down,  folds 
his  hands  and  is  willing  to  do  nothing  while  he 
receives  the  bounties  of  the  Lord.  With  Paul 
he  is  ever  constrained  to  ask: 

"Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do?" 

He  is  anxious  to  save  the  lost. 

He  knows  the  difficulty  in  reaching  them. 
Time  and  again  he  feels  himself  helpless  in  the 
matter;  but  his  heart  is  earnest,  his  purpose 
sincere  and  he  is  ready  to  be  used  whenever  the 
door  of  opportunity  is  opened.  The  word  fitly 
spoken  that  is  so  good  to  utter  comes  easily  to 
his  lips  at  the  appointed  moment. 

The  love  of  Christ  constrains  him. 

Not  his  love  to  Christ,  but  the  love  of  Christ 
to  him.  Now  and  then  he  may  feel  his  own  love 
grow  cold  or  failing,  but  every  glimpse  at  the 
cross  of  Christ,  at  the  crimson  stain  made  there 
for  him,  fills  him  afresh  and  holds  him,  carries 
him  through  desert  places,  stays  him  in  hours  of 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  4^7 

conflict  and  brings  him  over  many  a  bridgeless 
gulf,  through  many  a  doorless  wall. 

What  he  does,  he  does  for  Christ's  sake. 

This  is  ever  his  rallying  cry  and  the  impulse 
that  lifts  him  above  his  natural  wish. 

He  rejoices  in  the  Lord  his  Saviour. 

The  joys  of  earth  fade,  the  pleasures  of  the 
flesh  wither,  but  in  the  Lord  there  are  joys  which 
flow  as  from  a  never-failing  fountain. 

He  is  full  of  assurance. 

He  knows,  should  he  die,  he  would  be  absent 
from  his  home  in  this  body  and  present  at  his 
home  with  the  Lord.  He  knows  in  a  moment  he 
would  pass  through  the  gates  of  the  upper  city 
and  walks  on  the  banks  of  the  river  of  life.  If 
he  has  been  well  taught  he  knows  the  Coming  of 
the  Lord  is  imminent,  and  that  any  moment 
which  shall  please  the  Lord  he  may  be  caught 
up  to  meet  Him,  be  clothed  with  immortality 
and  be  with  Him  forevermore.  He  is  a  saved 
man  and  knows  it  and  daily  brings  forth  "the 
things  which  accompany  salvation." 

He  is  compared  in  Scripture  to  the  wise  vir- 
gins. 


4^8  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

The  wise  virgins  not  only  took  oil  in  theif 
lamps  but  in  the  vessels  with  their  lamps.  He 
not  only  bears  the  lamp  of  profession,  he  has 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  his  body  as  the  continual  re- 
plenishment of  the  light  he  bears. 

He  is  compared  to  the  man  who  built  his  house 
on  a  rock. 

The  black  clouds  gather.  Midnoon  is  turned 
to  midnight.  The  surcharged  clouds  break. 
They  pour  forth  their  flood.  The  winds  sweep 
the  rain  in  gusty  raffles.  The  downpour  be- 
comes a  tidal  wave.  Wave  after  wave  beats 
upon  the  rock  and  the  increasing  winds  roar 
and  shriek  and  fling  themselves  in  mad,  discord- 
ant fury  against  that  house,  but  it  falls  not — // 
is  founded  upon  a  rock. 

That  rock  is  Christ,  the  risen,  immortal 
Christ. 

The  professor  is  a  true  and  genuine  Christian. 
He  has  done  the  will  of  God  in  founding  him- 
self upon  that  Rock;  founding  himself  in  all 
sincerity  and  truth  on  Christ,  his  profession  is 
as  the  storm-smitten  but  immovable  rock. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  489, 

///.  There  is  a  profession  of  Christ  which 
gives  no  evidence  of  being  genuine. 

Unregenerate  professors  Jo  not  love  the  House 
of  God. 

There  are,  it  is  said,  in  this  city,  a  million  per- 
sons, Protestants,  who  once  professed  the  name 
of  Christ  who  rarely,  if  ever,  go  to  church. 

Dislike  for  the  house  of  God  and  the  assembly 
of  the  saints  bears  tremendous  witness  against 
the  genuineness  of  such  professors. 

They  do  not  love  the  Word  of  God. 

They  will  read  anything  else  but  that.  They 
will  read  the  daily  blanket  sheet  filled  with  false- 
hood and  current  scandal.  They  will  read  the 
lightest  novels  whose  worthlessness  is  so  mani- 
fest they  slip  from  the  mind  with  such  ease  that 
continuous  reading  destroys  memory  and  fills  the 
brain  with  emptiness. 

They  do  not  love  to  pray. 

They  never  pray  except  when  they  are  sick; 
or  some  one  whom  they  love  is  near  to  die,  or 
when  their  own  plans  fail  and  they  are  shut 
sheer  up  in  some  impasse  from  which  they  can- 
not emerge,  then  they  cry  out  in  despair.    They 


490  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

know  nothing  of  the  prayer  that  breathes  out  the 
soul  and  carries  it  as  on  wings  to  God.  They  do 
not  actually  pray.  They  may  say  prayers,  but 
they  do  not  pray;  they  do  not  talk  to  God.  A 
prayerless  soul  is  a  godless  soul.  A  prayerless 
professor  gives  no  evidence  that  he  or  she  is 
aught  else  but  a  mere  professor. 

They  do  not  care  for  Christian  company. 

They  prefer  to  find  their  friends  among  the 
worldlings.  They  are  at  home  with  them  and 
not  with  spiritual  Christians.  Spiritual  Chris- 
tians exceedingly  bore  them;  their  conversation 
annoys  them;  they  do  not  feel  at  home  or  at 
ease  with  them. 

They  do  not  change  their  old  life  nor  their  old 
way  of  living. 

Their  speech  is  careless,  flippant.  The  speech 
of  professed  Christian  men  is  sometimes  filled 
with  slang,  with  "inconvenient"  jest  and  not  in- 
frequently, with  profanity,  and  is  more  or  less 
redolent  with  the  suggestions  of  down-right  un- 
belief. 

They  are  lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers 
n/"  God. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  49 1 

They  show  tiofie  of  the  fruit  of  the  spirit. 

They  have  a  name  to  live  and  are  spiritually 
dead. 

They  may  at  times  be  religious,  but  are  never 
spiritual. 

Between  religiousness  and  spirituality  there 
is  an  Atlantic  ocean  difference.  The  difference 
is  as  great  as  that  between  death  and  life.  An 
idolator  is  religious,  but  he  is  spiritually  dead. 
Religious  forms  and  beautiful  ceremonies,  with- 
out the  Spirit  of  Christ,  are  like  the  flowers  laid 
on  the  breast  of  the  dead,  their  very  beauty  of 
form  and  delight  of  fragrance  serve  only  to  draw 
attention  to  the  fact  of  death. 

Professors  who  do  not  manifest  Christ  in  their 
daily  lives  are  stumbling  blocks  to  non-prof es- 
sor' 

They  are  a  scandal  to  the  church. 

They  are  a  dishonor  to  God. 

They  do  more  harm  to  the  cause  of  Christ 
than  all  the  open  sinners  and  infidels  in  the 
world. 

IV.     A  great  separation  will  take  place  when 


492  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

our  Lord  comes  down  into  the  air  to  receive 
His  Church  to  Himself. 

In  previous  sermons  I  have  shown  you  the 
Lord  is  coming  in  a  three-fold  glory. 

He  is  coming  in  the  glory  of  the  Father — as 
His  Son. 

He  is  coming  in  the  glory  of  the  angels — as 
their  Master. 

He  is  coming  in  His  own  glory — as  God  the 
Son. 

He  is  coming  with  ten  thousand  times  ten 
thousand  and  thousands  of  the  angelic  host. 

Every  cloud  will  be  a  chariot  of  burnished 
glory. 

The  wide,  measureless  spaces  of  the  heavens 
will  be  filled  with  song, — the  songs  the  Heav- 
enly choirs  have  been  practicing  since  that  hour 
when  the  morning  stars  sang  together  and  all 
the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy. 

The  earth  will  quiver  at  the  sound  of  ap- 
proaching glory. 

The  mountains  will  melt  and  flow  down. 

The  ocean  from  all  its  depths  will  break  with 
awe-inspiring  thunder  on  all  its  shores. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  493 

Every  voice  in  heaven,  in  earth  and  under  the 
earth  will  salute  Him  as  He  comes  to  reveal 
Himself  the  wonderful,  the  mighty  God,  the 
everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

But,  before  He  comes  in  glory  such  as  this. 
He  will  descend  in  sudden  soft  and  secret  fash- 
ion, like  a  tliief  in  the  night  into  the  upper  air. 

He  will  call  every  genuine  professor  of  His 
name  up  to  meet  Him.  The  dead  in  Christ  will 
be  raised,  the  living  will  be  changed.  They 
shall  be  clothed  with  His  likeness.  They  shall 
be  made  immortal.  He  will  take  them  through 
the  wide,  open  gates  of  pearl  into  the  golden  and 
transparent  city.  They  shall  pass  through  a  civil 
service  examination  at  His  judgment  seat  of  re- 
ward. He  will  reward  the  slightest  deed  done 
in  His  name,  the  cup  of  cold  water  given,  the 
kindly  word  spoken,  the  hand  of  helpfulness  ex- 
tended. He  will  assign  to  each  the  place  he  is  to 
occupy  in  the  coming  kingdom.  But  as  soon  as 
He  takes  the  church  up  to  meet  Him  He  will 
shut  the  door  of  Heaven. 

This  avill  be  the  moment  of  the  great  separa- 
tion. 


494  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Up  to  that  hour  all  the  living  will  have  lived 
together,  the  good  and  the  bad,  the  righteous 
and  unrighteous,  believer  and  unbeliever.  All 
will  have  enjoyed  the  common  providence,  the 
unfailing  grace.  There  has  been  outwardly  no 
distinction  in  the  relation  of  human  beings  to  the 
Heaven  of  God ;  but  now,  all  those  of  the  living 
who  belong  to  Christ,  w^ho  are  really  His,  will 
be  taken  out  of  the  earth.  All  who  are  not  His 
will  be  shut  out  from  Heaven's  gates,  Heaven's 
joys  and  left  behind  to  the  hardening  and  scourg- 
ing judgment,  the  certain  woe  and  the  long  time 
and  often  warned  anguish  that  is  coming  on  the 
earth,  and  for  a  space  will  make  of  it  an  arena  of 
indescribable  anguish  and  suffering,  a  world  in 
which  all  who  have  missed  the  invitations  of 
grace  and  rejected  the  mercy  of  God  will  find 
themselves  in  their  woe  and  suffering  sealed  unto 
the  coming  and  final  doom. 

There  will  be  four  classes  left  behind  to  meet 
this  fearful  hour: 

Unregenerate  church-members. 

False  systems  of  Christianity. 

False  teachers. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  495 

The  world  of  unbelievers. 

Unregeuerate  church-members. 

The  very  title  seems  appalling. 

But  such  are  all  those  who  are  mere  profes- 
sors of  the  name  of  Christ. 

Multitudes  are  made  such  by  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of 

Infant  Baptism. 

There  is  no  such  teaching  in  the  Word  of 
God. 

If  I  were  to  ofTer  a  man  a  million  of  dollars 
to  find  a  single  direct  text  authorizing  the  bap- 
tism of  infants,  or  a  single  instance  recorded  in 
the  New  Testament  where  an  infant  of  days  was 
baptized,  and  should  I  give  the  seeker  after  the 
text  a  million  years  in  which  to  find  it,  should 
he  in  the  providence  of  God  be  spared  to  live 
that  long,  he  would  die  poor  and  be  buried  in 
the  tattered  rags  of  his  long-time  poverty. 

Baptism^  in  Holy  Scripture  is  a  confession  of 
individual  faith,  that  Christ  died,  was  buried, 
and  rose  again. 

Such  baptism  must  be  preceded  by  intelligent 
personal  and  responsible  faith. 


496  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

The  disaster  in  the  doctrine  of  infant  baptism 
is  not  merely  in  the  fact  that  it  is  not  taught  in 
nor  warranted  by  the  Word  of  God  and  is  in  it- 
self a  denial  of  the  basis  and  ground  of  true  bap- 
tism, but  in  the  fact  that  it  is  taught  as  the  means 
and  mode  of  regeneration. 

Infant  baptism  is  only  another  name  for  bap- 
tismal regeneration. 

The  word  of  God  knows  nothing  about  baptis- 
mal regeneration. 

It  may  be  objected  the  son  of  God  Himself 
has  said:  "Except  a  man  be  born  of  (out  of) 
water  and  of  (out  of)  the  spirit,  he  cannot  enter 
the  Kingdom  of  God." 

It  may  be  affirmed  that  in  speaking  of  water 
the  Son  of  God  was  referring  to  baptism  and 
declaring  that  in  and  by  and  through  the  act 
or  administration  of  baptism  the  Spirit  operated 
upon  the  soul  of  the  baptized  and  produced  re- 
generation. 

The  answer  to  this  is  to  be  found  in  Saint 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  fifth  chapter, 
twenty-sixth  verse. 

'^The  washing  of  water  by  (in)  the  word" 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  497 

The  Lord  is  speaking  of  the  cleansing  and 
sanctifying  of  the  Church  in  and  by  the  Word. 

In  His  address  to  the  disciples  at  the  last  sup- 
per He  declared  they  were  clean,  sanctified  and 
set  apart  by  His  Word,  He  said: 

"Ye  are  clean  through  the  Word  which  I  have 
spoken  unto  you." 

In  the  expression,  "washing  of  water  in  the 
word,"  the  spiritually  quickening  and  cleansing 
power  of  the  Word  to  the  soul  is  compared  to 
the  washing  and  cleansing  action  of  water  upon 
the  body. 

The  energy  which  gives  the  Word  its  quicken- 
ing, cleansing  power  is  the  Spirit. 

When  therefore,  our  Lord  says,  "except  a  man 
be  born  (quickened)  of  water  and  of  the  spirit," 
He  is  not  using  water  as  a  symbol  of  baptism; 
for,  that  would  be  making  a  symbol,  the  symbol 
of  a  symbol  and  in  the  connection  would  have  no 
meaning  at  all  as  coordinate  with  the  spirit.  On 
the  contrary.  He  is  using  water  as  a  symbol  of 
the  Word.  And  in  this  the  water  is  legitimately 
coordinated  with  Spirit.    The  Lord  is  here  set- 


49 S  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

ting  forth  the  fact  that  the  Spirit  and  the  Word 
are  the  alone  efficient  means  of  regeneration. 

The  Spirit  is  the  agent,  the  Word  the  instru- 
ment. 

The  Word  is  preached,  the  Spirit  quickens  it, 
the  spiritual  life  enters  in,  the  individual  re- 
ceives the  new  birth. 

This  operation  of  the  Spirit  and  the  Word  is 
illustrated  by  our  Lord  in  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion of  Nicodemus. 

Nicodemus  cannot  understand  how  a  man 
may  be  born  again;  or,  rather,  "quickened  from 
above,"  when  he  has  already  been  quickened, 
and  born  from  below,  on  earth. 

The  Lord  tells  him  that  as  Moses  lifted  up  the 
serpent  in  the  wilderness,  so  must  the  Son  of 
Man  be  lifted  up  that  whosoever  believeth  in 
Him  should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life. 

The  bitten  Israelites  got  life  by  looking  away 
from  themselves  to  the  crucified  serpent  on  the 
cross  (it  was  a  cross).  They  got  life  by  taking 
God  at  His  word  about  it. 

Just  so,  you  look  away  from  self  and  all  the 
hopes  self  holds  out.    You  look  at  Christ  on  the 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  499 

cross.  You  take  God  at  His  Word  about  Him. 
You  accept  Him  on  the  authority  of  God's 
Word.  The  Word  enters  your  soul  like  a  seed, 
the  Spirit  quickens  it,  you  have  life  in  Christ, 
you  are  saved. 

Baptism  cannot  do  that. 

All  the  water  in  the  world  though  it  were 
poured  upon  you  like  a  flood;  all  the  water  in 
the  world  though  you  were  plunged  in  it  as  in 
an  ocean;  all  the  baptism  in  the  world  be  it 
scriptural  or  unscriptural  and  though  the  name 
of  the  Father  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  were  pro- 
nounced upon  it  a  thousand  times  in  each  indi- 
vidual case,  would  never  quicken  a  human  soul, 
nor  give  it  a  vision  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

No!  only  the  Spirit  and  the  Word  in  coordi- 
nation through  the  exercise  of  personal  faith 
can  do  this. 

Baptismal  regeneration  then  is  impossible. 

The  very  proposition  would  shut  out  from 
Christ  and  the  kingdom  the  one  person  on  earth 
whom  He  particularly  said  should  be  with  Him 
in  paradise  and  be  assured  of  the  kingdom.  The 
thief  on  the  cross — and  every  believer  in  Christ 


50Q  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

who  died  and  for  one  reason  or  another  had  not 
been  baptized. 

Infant  Baptism  is  unthinkable. 

It  does  not  take  the  place  of  circumcision  as 
the  seal  of  the  covenant.  The  seal  of  the  cove- 
nant of  grace  is  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  it  is  written : 
"After  that  ye  believed,  ye  were  sealed  with  that 
holy  Spirit  of  promise." 

And  again: 

"The  holy  Spirit  of  God,  whereby  ye  are 
sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption." 

Infant  baptism  could  not  take  the  place  of 
circumcision  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case.  Cir- 
cumcision applies  only  to  the  male  sex.  Infant 
baptism  is  unthinkable  because  in  every  case  of 
recorded  baptism  in  the  New  Testament  it  is 
preceded  by  the  exercise  of  personal  faith. 

But,  infant  baptism  produces  measureless  dis- 
aster. 

It  deceives  the  individual.  At  confirmation 
the  person  who  has  been  baptized  in  infancy  is 
confirmed  in  the  belief  that  through  this  so- 
called  act  of  baptism,  through  the  agency  of 
water  the  Spirit  operated  independently  of  the 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  501 

individiiaVs  own  personal  attitude  in  the  matter, 
and  on  the  strength  of  the  faith  of  others,  of  those 
who  stood  sponsors  for  him;  and  that  during  all 
these  years  from  childhood,  no  matter  what  may 
have  been  his  character  he  has  had  the  Christ  life 
in  him.  Again  and  again  such  a  person  counting 
himself  sincere  in  his  early  regeneration  feels  no 
further  responsibility,  accepts  confirmation  and 
is  made  into  a  natural  and  unregenerate  member 
of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

But,  let  no  one  go  away  under  the  impression 
I  am  saying  all  those  who  have  been  baptized 
in  infancy  are  unregenerate.  God  forbid  I 
should  even  suggest  such  a  thing;  for  again  and 
again  in  the  days  leading  up  to  confirmation  or 
"first  communion,"  many  are  laid  hold  of  by 
the  Spirit  through  the  Word  of  the  Gospel  and 
are  actually  quickened,  regenerated,  saved. 

What  I  am  saying  is  this — that  baptism  does 
not  do  it  and  no  infant  that  ever  lived  was  regen- 
erated by  it,  or  ever  will  be.  The  grace  of  God 
can  and  does  rise  above  human  failure  and  hu- 
man error  and  call  the  elect.  But  it  is  beyond 
all  possible  dispute  that  through  the  unscrip- 


5U2  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

tural  doctrine  of  infant  baptism  or  baptismal 
regeneration  in  any  case,  multitudes  have  been 
made  into  unregenerate  members  of  the  profess- 
ing Church. 

Unregenerate  members  are  made  through  the 
appeal  to  and  the  exercise  of  merely  fleshly  emo- 
tions. 

Our  Lord  speaks  of  a  certain  class  who  are 
like  the  seed  which  fell  upon  rocky  ground.  It 
sprang  up  immediately,  but  soon  withered  away 
and  did  so  because — it  had  no  root. 

In  these  days  of  "modernized"  evangelism 
through  appeals  made  to  the  natural  emotions, 
the  organized  effort  in  the  name  of  Christ  for 
a  moral  and  fleshly  "clean-up,"  there  are  multi- 
tudes swept  into  the  profession  of  Christ.  They 
imagine  because  they  no  longer  drink,  nor  use 
profane  language,  nor  lead  immoral  lives  and 
are  more  gentle  and  better  mannered,  that  they 
are  Christians.  Many  of  them  awake  to  their 
own  self-deception,  grow  indifferent  and  fall 
away.  They  become  members  of  the  professing 
Church.  They  never  were  regenerated.  They 
had  no  rooii  in  Christ, 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  503 

All  imregenerate  members  of  the  professing 
Church  will  be  shut  out  of  Heaven  and  left  be- 
hind to  judgment  when  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
comes  for  His  true  Church. 

False  systems  of  Christianity  will  be  left  be- 
hind. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  warned  there  would  be 
such  false  systems.  He  foretold  it  in  the  par- 
able of  the  wheat  and  tares. 

The  wheat  was  sown  in  the  field. 

An  enemy  came  along  in  the  night  while 
men  slept  and  sowed  tares  (cheat,  darnel)  among 
the  wheat. 

They  grew  side  by  side. 

They  appeared  so  much  alike  the  farmer  com- 
manded his  servants  to  let  them  grow  till  the 
harvest. 

All  the  while  they  were  growing  side  by  side 
it  was  a  mixed  field. 

At  the  harvest  time  the  reapers  went  forth 
and  separated  the  tares  from  the  wheat,  gath- 
ered them  into  bundles  and  bound  them  that 
they  might  be  burned. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  the  field  does  not  sym- 


504  THE  GREAT  SEPAR.ATION 

bolize  the  Church.  Our  Lord  says  it  is  a  sym- 
bol of  the  world. 

The  wheat  is  a  symbol  of  the  children  of  the 
Kingdom,  those  who  are  not  only  professors, 
but  possessors  of  Christ — Christians. 

The  tares  also  represent  the  profession  of 
Christ  in  the  world;  but  tares  are  counterfeit 
wheat.  Tares  therefore  represent  counterfeit 
Christianity,  counterfeit  Christians  in  the  world. 

The  world  is  full  of  these  Devil-wrought  and 
counterfeit  systems  of  Christianity. 

Unitarianism  is  a  counterfeit  system  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

Unitarianism  denies  the  triunity  of  God. 

According  to  Unitarianism  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
Son  of  God,  but  not  God  the  Son.  ' 

In  this  proposition  it  denies  the  declaration  of 
the  Apostle  John  that  in  His  pre-existent  state 
our  Lord  was  God  the  Word  and  created  all 
things. 

It  denies  the  later  statement  of  John  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  true  God  and  eternal  life. 

It  denies  Paul's  affirmation  that  before  the 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  505 

Son  of  God  came  into  this  world  He  was  in  the 
'^form  of  God." 

It  denies  Paul's  statement  that  by  Him  God 
the  Father  created  all  things,  that  in  Him  all 
things  consist,  that  the  fulness  of  the  godhead 
dwelt  in  Him  bodily  and  that  He  upholds  all 
things  by  the  Word  of  His  power. 

It  denies  the  Lord's  own  statement  that  He 
was  of  one  substance  and  being  with  the  Father; 
that  before  the  world  was  He  sat  on  the  infinite 
throne  in  Heaven  with  Him,  sharing  and  man- 
ifesting His  glory;  that  He  was  self-existent  as 
the  Father  and  could  do  all  that  God  the  Father 
could  do. 

It  denies  the  overwhelming,  climacteric  and 
conclusive  statement  of  the  Father: 

Unto  the  Son  the  Father  says: 

^'Thy  throne,  O  GOD,  is  forever  and  ever/' 

The  Apostle  John  says : 

'Whosoever  denieth  the  Son,  the  same  hath 
not  the  Father." 

The  Father  and  the  Son  are  one  in  being  and 
essence.  To  be  without  the  one  is  to  be  without 
the  other. 


5o6  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

The  Unitarian  who  denies  the  deity  of  Christ, 
has  not  the  Father,  is  not  a  child  of  God,  and 
cannot  be  saved. 

The  Unitarian  who  believes  in  Unitarianism 
will  with  that  false  system  be  shut  out  from 
Heaven  when  the  Lord  comes  for  His  Church. 

Universalism  is  a  system  of  counterfeit  Chris- 
tianity. 

Universalism  teaches  that  Christ  died  for  all 
men  and  in  His  dying  paid  the  penalty  against 
all.  This  is  true  of  all,  v/hether  they  accept  the 
death  of  Christ  as  a  sacrifice  or  claim  Him  as 
a  substitute.  Since  the  penalty  of  all  has  been 
paid,  all  will  be  saved  from  the  original  doom. 
No  matter  though  men  continue  in  sin  up  to  the 
hour  of  death  they  will  be  saved. 

Such  a  system  if  it  does  not  put  an  actual  pre- 
mium upon  sin  does  put  a  premium  upon  spir- 
itual indifference  and  nullifies  every  appeal  and 
warning  against  continuance  in  sin. 

But  above  and  beyond  all  this,  in  assuring  sal- 
vation to  all  men,  Universalism  denies  the  sol- 
emn and  warning  utterance  of  the  Son  of  God 
Himself. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  S^l 

He  said: 

"He  that  believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see 
life;   but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  Him. 

Could  anything  be  plainer  than  that? 

The  unbeliever  shall  not  see  life. 

If  the  unbeliever  dies  in  his  unbelief  he  shall 
not  only  not  see  life  (the  eternal  life  of  Christ) 
but  the  wrath  of  God  will  abide  on  him  on  the 
other  side  of  death  and  the  grave — through  eter- 
nity w^ill  abide  on  him. 

To  teach  men  they  are  saved;  to  fill  them 
with  the  hope  of  life  and  then  let  them  go  into 
eternity  to  exist  forever  unsaved,  forever  under 
the  down  pressure  and  weight  of  the  abiding 
wrath  of  God !  Is  there  anything  more  wickedly 
deceptive  and  betraying  of  the  soul  than  that? 

Universalists  who  have  not  turned  in  faith  to 
God,  who  have  not  been  regenerated  by  the 
Spirit  will  be  left  behind  when  the  Lord  comes, 
to  meet  and  suffer  the  unspeakable  woe. 

Roman  Catholicism  is  a  false  and  counterfeit 
system  of  Christianity. 

It  is  a  compound  of  Judaism,  Paganism,  and 
Apostate  Christianity.     It  has  the  priesthood  of 


5o8  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Judaism,  the  idolatry  of  Paganism,  and  the  in- 
vented and  perverted  doctrines  of  Apostate 
Christianity. 

It  teaches  that  the  bread  and  wine  in  the 
Lord's  Supper  may  be  transformed  by  the  word 
of  the  priest  into  the  actual  body  and  blood  of 
Christ.  It  teaches  that  the  priest  has  power  to 
offer  up  the  Son  of  God  in  sacrifice,  that  His 
crucifixion  is  continual,  teaching  this  in  plain 
and  open  contradiction  to  the  word  of  the  Apos- 
tle that  Christ  died  once  for  all  and  by  one  sac- 
rifice has  perfected  forever  those  who  believe. 

It  teaches  purgatory,  a  half  way  purifying 
hell  for  those  who  die,  out  of  which  for  a  certi- 
fied sum  of  money  they  may  eventually  be  liber- 
ated by  the  priest  and  having  been  purified  by 
the  fire  may  enter  heaven  at  last. 

It  teaches  the  immaculate  conception  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  that  she  was  specially  conceived 
without  sin  in  order  that  she  might  be  the  sinless 
mother  of  her  sinless  Son.  It  miraculously  re- 
moves her  from  earth  and  sets  her  up  to  be  the 
queen  of  heaven.  It  thrusts  her  in  as  primary 
and  supreme  intercessor  between  the  Christian 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5^9 

and  the  high  priestly  interceding  Christ  Him- 
self. 

It  teaches  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  to  the 
written  Word,  holds  the  written  Word  to  be  de- 
pendent on  and  secondary  to  the  authority  of 
the  Church,  claims  the  right  to  originate  doc- 
trine, claims  temporal  sovereignty  over  the 
kingdoms  and  nations  of  earth,  teaches  the  in- 
fallibility of  the  Pope  and  makes  his  decisions 
inerrant  and  binding. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  in  an  amazing  forecast 
and  altogether  divine  prophecy  paint  the  pic- 
ture of  this  system  under  the  figure  of  the  woman 
who  hides  leaven  in  the  meal,  as  Jezebel  of  Thy- 
atira,  as  the  scarlet  woman,  the  mistress  of  the 
ten-horned  beast,  as  Babylon  the  Great,  the 
mother  of  harlots,  as  the  city  which  in  the  days 
of  the  Apostle  John  ruled  over  the  Kings  of  the 
earth,  even  Rome,  and  as  filled  and  drunken 
with  the  bipod  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus. 

The  history  of  this  church  has  been  the  his- 
tory of  bloody  persecution,  of  stakes,  of  racks, 
of  inquisitorial  torture  to  all  who  opposed  or 
ofifended  her. 


5  10  THE  GREAT  SEPAIL\TION 

Wherever  the  Church  has  been  dominant  she 
has  sunken  the  people  into  ignorance  and  super- 
stition and  is  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  a 
menace  to  the  liberty  of  peoples  and  a  barrier  to 
spiritual  growth  in  and  knowledge  of  God. 

There  arc,  undoubtedly,  many  in  Romanism 
who  are  sincere  and  devout  Christians  and  in 
spite  of  error  and  false  teaching  are  filled  with 
genuine  faith  in  and  devotion  to  the  Son  of  God. 
But  the  system  with  its  doctrines  of  baptismal 
regeneration,  auricular  confession,  the  priestly 
power  of  absolution  holds  out  the  false  salva- 
tion of  an  unscriptural  Christ,  a  deceptive  and 
soul  destroying  hope. 

When  the  Lord  comes  this  system  will  be  left 
to  terrific  judgments  at  the  hand  of  the  nations 
which  once  supported  and  have  been  controlled 
by  it.  All  those  who  have  not  received  the 
life  of  the  risen  Christ  in  the  soul  through  sanc- 
tified and  genuine  faith  in  Him  will  be  left  to 
share  the  fearful  judgment  and  the  anguish  of 
the  system  of  v/hich  they  have  formed  a  part. 

Christian  Science  is  a  system  of  Counterfeit 
Christianity. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5  1 1 

It  is  neither  scientific,  nor  Christian. 

It  is  not  scientific. 

It  is  not  scientific  because  it  denies  the  exist- 
ence of  matter. 

When  a  Christian  Scientist  strikes  his  head 
against  a  wall,  by  the  logic  of  his  proposition  he 
must  deny  not  only  the  contact,  the  concussion 
and  the  reacting  blow,  but  the  wall  itself.  There 
is,  there  can  be,  no  other  wall  than  such  as  the 
imagination  of  mortal  mind  may  self-deceiv- 
ingly  fashion  for  itself. 

It  is  of  little  consequence  therefore  what 
Christian  Science  may  say  about  matter. 

//  is  not  Christian. 

It  is  not  Christian  because  it  denies  every  fun- 
damental doctrine  of  Christianity. 

It  denies  the  Trinity  of  Godhead. 

It  denies  the  personality  of  God. 

It  denies  the  blood  of  Jesus  was  of  any  more 
avail  when  shed  on  the  cross  than  when  flowing 
through  His  veins  in  daily  life. 

It  denies  Jesus  was  an  actual  person.  In  giv- 
ing birth  to  Him  the  Virgin  Mary  only  gave 
birth  to  an  abstract  idea,  not  to  a  body  of  flesh. 


5  1 2  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Jesus  and  Christ  are  distinct. 

Jesus  is  the  human  idea,  Christ  is  the  eternal 
principle  of  truth.  Jesus  was  an  apparition  only. 
Christ  is  the  abiding  principle. 

Jesus  never  actually  died.  How  could  that 
die  which  never  actually  had  been  born?  and  yet 
with  remarkable  reasoning  Christian  Science 
makes  Him  continue  alive  in  the  tomb  during 
the  three  days  in  which  the  disciples  had  been 
self-deceived  in  imagining  he  had  ever  lived. 

But  this  method  of  reasoning  is  of  a  piece  with 
the  whole  system. 

It  denies  that  Jesus  exists  to-day. 

Taking  them  in  order,  Christian  Science  is 
guilty  of  four  fundamental  falsehoods. 

The  denial  of  matter. 

The  denial  of  sin. 

The  denial  of  sickness. 

The  denial  of  death. 

The  other  evening  I  witnessed  a  glorious 
sight. 

It  was  the  vision  of  sunset. 

All  the  far  upper  dome  of  the  heavens  was 
turning  into  the  blue  of  night,  with  here  and 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5M 

there  a  pale,  faint  star.  Below  them  was  a 
golden  city  with  towers  and  turret  of  sapphire 
beauty.  There  was  a  river  that  poured  its  mar- 
velous silver  by  shores  of  amethyst  and  rose. 

Toward  the  horizon  great  clouds  like  glow- 
ing embers  from  a  burning  palace  broke  and 
fell. 

Then  through  a  highway  of  shattered  and 
splintered  color  the  chariot  of  the  sun  went 
down  leaving  the  night  winds  as  they  rose  to 
sweep  away  the  dust  of  gold  and  crimson  the 
fiery  wheel  had  flung  as  its  farewell  to  the  day. 

I  have  seen  the  mountains  standing  in  senti- 
nel outline  against  the  descending  sky.  I  have 
seen  the  valleys  and  the  plains  of  earth,  wooded 
hills  and  waving  fields  of  grain.  I  have  seen  the 
rivers  gliding  to  the  sea  and  have  watched  the 
great  ocean  as  it  broke  in  billowy  waves  upon 
the  resounding,  rock-ribbed  shore. 

I  have  trodden  upon  shifting  sand,  on  granite 
rock,  and  yielding  soil.  I  have  touched  and  seen 
and  known  matter  in  every  form. 

And  yet,  this  Christian  Science  has  the  au- 
dacity and  the  mendacity  to  stand  and  say  there 
is  no  matter. 


514  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Little  wonder  is  it  that  it  has  no  place  upon 
the  field  of  carnage,  amid  the  hell  of  battle 
thunder,  in  the  wards  of  hospitals,  by  the  beds  of 
wounded  men,  smitten  with  shot  and  shell  and 
shrapnel.  Little  wonder  that  it  dare  not  go 
amid  these  scenes  and  lifting  up  the  blatant, 
babbling  talk,  with  insulting,  outrageous  utter- 
ance insist  that  these  awful  visions,  these  facts  of 
blood  and  anguish  are  but  the  phantasies  of 
mortal  mind  and  that  matter  in  a  soldiers' 
wrenched  and  torn  and  bruised  body,  and  the 
sword,  or  bayonet  or  gun  that  wrecked  him  and 
made  him  a  broken,  helpless  thing  for  life,  do 
not  exist. 

Everywhere  in  the  earth  there  are  judges,  law- 
yers, courthouses,  prisons,  men  behind  the  prison 
bars,  gibbets  and  electric  chairs.  Everywhere 
there  is  violation  of  law,  the  tragedy,  the  flowing 
tears,  the  spilling  of  blood,  anguish,  sorrow,  re- 
morse. Everywhere  bodies  are  suffering,  hearts 
are  aching  and  lives  are  blasted  because  of  sin. 
So  great,  so  wide-spread,  so  universal  is  sin,  so 
indisputable  the  fact,  so  great  the  mystery,  so 
measureless  its  power,  its  insistence  and  the  in- 
ability to  overcome  it,  abolish  it  or  even  modify 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5  1 5 

it,  that  men  who  have  studied  it,  sought  to  re- 
sist it,  put  lock  and  bar  and  chain  upon  it,  have 
shrunk  back  aghast  at  its  force,  its  undeniable  re- 
ality. 

And  yet,  this  Christian  Science  has  the  auda- 
city and  the  mendacity  to  stand  up  and  say  there 
is — no  sin. 

Everywhere  in  the  world  you  will  find  doc- 
tors, surgeons,  hospitals,  sanitoriums.  Every- 
where you  will  find  human  beings  suffering  the 
torture  of  pain,  stricken,  eaten  up,  devoured  by 
disease,  disease  so  multifarious,  so  complicated, 
so  variant,  so  involving  of  every  square  inch  of 
organic  animal  existence;  disease  so  awful,  so 
terrible,  making  human  beings  so  repulsive,  so 
dangerous  that  even  those  who  love  them  are 
forced  to  hide  them  from  the  public  gaze;  sick- 
ness, disease,  pain  so  immense,  so  all-pervading 
and  threatening  to  the  common  weal  that  the 
keenest  brains,  the  most  unwearied  study  and  the 
most  loyal  and  unselfish  devotion  of  man  to  man 
have  been  employed  to  combat,  to  relieve,  to 
cure;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  ages  of  consecration; 
in  spite  of  poured-out  means,  of  genius,  of  inven- 
tion   and    application;     although    men    have 


5  1 6  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

searched  nature's  laboratories  and  brought  in 
the  service  of  nature's  laws,  disease,  sufifering, 
sickness  in  every  shade,  degree  and  form,  con- 
ceivable and  inconceivable  lay  hold  sooner  or 
later  in  one  fashion  or  another  upon  every  hu- 
man body,  even  upon  the  body  of  the  most  ex- 
pert and  persistent  healer  of  Christian  Science 
itself. 

And  yet  Christian  Science  has  the  audacity 
and  mendacity  to  say  there  is — no  sickness. 

Everyw^here  in  the  world  you  will  find  the 
silent  cities  of  the  dead.  Wherever  you  go  you 
will  see  the  white  shaft,  the  tombstone,  the  mar- 
ble urn,  the  mound  that  hides  the  buried  body  of 
the  well  beloved.  Everywhere  some  one  is  leav- 
ing these  mortal  shores,  and  the  living  close 
their  no  longer  seeing  eyes,  fold  their  dead,  still 
hands  and  prepare  them  for  that  sleep  w^ithin  the 
dust  from  which  no  tears,  no  heartache  of  long- 
ing, no  beseeching,  petitioning  word  of  yearn- 
ing love  can  wake  them. 

Everywhere  are  the  dead. 

In  every  house,  sooner  or  later,  w^ith  unbidden 
and  unwelcome  step  comes  the  silent  messenger 
-^death. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5  1 7 

And  yet,  Christian  Science  has  the  audacity 
and  mendacity  to  stand  up  before  the  sons  of 
men  and  say  there  is — no  death. 

Yonder  at  Boston,  in  Mount  Auburn,  behind 
the  iron  and  guarded  bars,  deep  within  the 
depths  of  a  voiceless  tomb  lies  the  mouldering 
and  corrupting  body,  the  dust,  the  whitening 
bones  of  a  woman,  who,  in  contradiction  to  that 
Lord  who  never  called  a  woman  to  be  an  apostle, 
never  appointed  a  woman  to  any  office  in  the 
Church,  never  authorized  or  commissioned  a 
woman  to  preach;  in  direct  repudiation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  apostolic  law  which  forbids  a 
woman  to  teach  and  expressly  commands  her  to 
be  silent  in  the  assembly  of  the  saints;  in  that 
grave  at  Auburn  lies  the  body  of  a  woman  who 
set  up  this  false,  this  so  called  ''Church"  of 
Christian  Science,  denied  matter,  sin,  sickness 
and  said  there  was  no  such  thing  as  death. 

To-night,  over  the  tomb  where  this  much- 
married,  much-divorced  woman  lies  moulder- 
ing, corrupt  and  forever  broken,  the  living  God 
whose  Christ  she  burlesqued,  counterfeited,  be- 
trayed and  denied,  writes  in  burning  letters  of 


5  1 8  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

scintillating  light  these  fearful  and  amazing 
words : 

''HERE  ENDETH  THE  GREAT  LIE!" 

Russellism  is  another  system  of  counterfeit 
Christianity. 

Annihilation  of  the  finally  impenitent  is  a  doc- 
trine held  and  taught  by  different  sects. 

The  most  prominent,  the  one  whose  books, 
whose  literature  has  had  the  widest  circulation 
and  has  been  made  known  to,  and  more  or  less 
affected  millions  of  people  is  the  cult  generally 
known  as  Russellism. 

Russellism  teaches  that  before  He  was  born 
into  this  world  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  the 
Archangel  Michael;  that  in  giving  birth  to 
Jesus  the  Virgin  Mary  was  giving  birth  to  the 
archangel  in  human  form. 

Jesus  had  but  one  nature,  the  nature  of  Adam 
before  he  sinned  and  fell. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  Russellism  as 
of  its  kindred  systems  is,  that  death  is  the — cessa- 
tion of  being. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  redemption  is, 
that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  died  on  the  cross,  not 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5^9 

.  - . . .  j 

only  as  a  sacrifice  for  sin  but  as  a  substitute  for 
the  sinner. 

A  substitute  must  pay  in  kind  the  obligation 
or  debt  of  the  principal  whose  place  he  takes. 

Since  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  must  take  the 
place  and  pay  the  penalty  of  those  whom  He  re- 
deems and  saves;  since,  according  to  the  teach- 
ing of  Russellism  death  is  the  cessation  of  being, 
then  when  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  died.  He 
ceased  to  be,  He  went  out  of  existence,  He  was 
actually  annihilated. 

The  logic  is  unerring,  sure,  beyond  question. 

The  founder  of  Russellism  accepted  the  logic 
and  taught — 

The  Annihilation  of  Our  Lord's  Hu- 
manity ON  THE  Cross. 

He  taught  that  the  man  Jesus  had  ceased  to 
exist;  that  when  He  died  on  the  cross  He  was 
dead  forever. 

That  you  may  see  this  is  no  mere  partisan,  nor 
imaginative  deduction  of  mine  I  will  read  to 
you  some  extract's  from  the  text  book  of  Russel- 
lism, "Bible  Studies,"  the  very  words  and  teach- 
ings of  Russell  himself. 


V 


526  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Bible  Studies,  Volume  ^,  page  3^^- 
"Our  Lord's  being  or  soul  was  non-existent 
during  the  period  of  death/' 

Bible  Studies,  Volume  I ,  page  2 JO. 
"His  human  existence  ended  on  the  cross/' 
Bible  Studies,  Volume  ^,  page  454- 
"It  was  necessary,  not  only  that  the  man  Christ 
Jesus  should  die,  but  just  as  necessary  that  the 
man  Christ  J esus  should  never  live  again,  should 

remain  dead to  all  eternity." 

Bible  Studies,  Volume  2 ,  page  I S5- 

"He  has  no  further  use  for  a  human  body." 

Bible  Studies,  Volume  2 ,  page  1 2Q. 

"We  know  nothing  about  what  became  of  it 

(the    body    of    the    Lord    after    death) 

whether  it  (the  body  of  our  risen  Lord) ,  was  dis- 
solved into  gases no  one  knows." 

Bible  Studies,  Volume  ^,  page  4^6. 
"The  man  Christ  Jesus  suffered  for  us  death 
in  the  most  absolute  sense  of  the  word — 'EVER- 
LASTING DESTRUCTION?' " 

Bible  Studies,  Volume  ^,  page  454- 
''The  man  Jesus  is  dead — FOREVER  DEAD." 
In  the  nature  of  the  case,  if  the  personality  of 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5 1 1 

a  being  is  destroyed,  it  cannot  be  raised  again 
from  the  dead — There  is  nothing  to  raise.  Any 
so-called  resurrection  would  not  be  a  resurrec- 
tion but  a  distinct,  new  creation,  as  much  so  as 
that  of  the  first  man.  As  it  would  not  be  the  same 
personality,  but  another  and  distinct  personality 
from  that  which  died,  then,  if  Christ  were  ac- 
tually destroyed  on  the  Cross  as  to  soul  and  be- 
ing (and  this  is  personality),  any  pretended  res- 
urrection of  Christ  would  be  simply  the  pre- 
tended resurrection  of  another  Christ.  It  would 
not  be  the  original  Christ  but — a  false  Christ. 

This  is  the  Christ  Russellism  preaches. 

The  Christ  Russellism  preaches  is  a  false 
Christ  before  he  dies  and  another  and  pretended 
Christ  in  the  pseudo-resurrection  after  he  dies. 

The  teaching  of  Russellism  that  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  was  the  Archangel  Michael,  that 
he  was  annihilated  on  the  cross,  that  His  hu- 
manity was  forever  destroyed,  and  that  His  body 
was  possibly  turned  to  gas,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
different  bodies  which  it  is  said  He  assumed 
after  His  resurrection,  bodies  that  were  put  on 
and  dissolved  into  thin  air  at  will,  is  a  teaching 


52  2  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

SO  full  of  blasphemy,  so  coarse,  so  utterly  brutal, 
so  wholly  devilish  and  wicked  that  human  lan- 
guage furnishes  no  vocabulary  of  sufficiently 
keen  and  cauterizing  words  or  phrases  whereby 
I  may  denounce  as  I  describe  its  vulgarism 
and  mad  treason  against  the  Son  of  God. 

Like  the  author  of  Christian  Science  the 
founder  of  Russellism  has  descended  into  the 
grave,  and  as  the  rich  man  of  old,  has  awakened 
to  find  that  death  does  not  end  all;  and  that  the 
being  and  existence  which  denied  the  wonder 
and  glory  of  the  person  of  our  Lord  still  con- 
tinues, but  as  a  condition  where  repentance  is  of 
no  avail,  where  the  awakening  comes  too  late. 

I  am  unwilling  to  go  into  any  further  analysis 
of  this  system  now,  this  system  which  offers  a 
second  chance  to  all  who  have  died  out  of  Christ 
and  puts  a  premium  on  sin  by  assuring  those  who 
are  determined  to  die  without  Christ  that  the 
more  they  yield  to  sin  here,  the  more  probable 
it  will  be  when  the  second  chance  is  given 
they  will  accept  and  at  last  be  saved;  and  that 
those  who  do  not  care  to  accept  the  Gospel  of- 
fered them  will  be  permitted  to  die  the  second 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  523 

death  and  be  blotted  out  of  existence.  In  other 
words,  no  matter  how  often  they  may  have  re- 
jected Christ  they  will  have  another  chance  to 
be  saved,  and  if  they  prefer  annihilation,  if  they 
wish  to  be  asphyxiated,  smothered  out  by  fire 
into  eternal  unconsciousness,  everlasting  destruc- 
tion, eternal  cessation  of  being  they  can  have, 
that  privilege. 

According  to  Russellism  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  future,  endless,  conscious  punishment 
for  sin. 

This  Gospel  of  Russellism  ought  to  be  hailed 
with  joy  by  every  thief  and  murderer. 

There  are  always  two  immense  outlooks : 

Reject  the  Gospel,  commit  all  the  sin  you  like, 
die,  be  unconscious,  be  brought  into  existence 
again,  have  another  chance  to  hear  the  Gospel, 
accept,  be  saved  and  enjoy  eternal  felicity. 

Reject  the  Gospel,  live  a  life  of  sin  to  the  full- 
est capacity^  then  become  unconscious  or  go  out 
of  being,  be  brought  to  life  again,  have  the  gos- 
pel presented,  be  given  a  hundred  years  of  pro- 
bation to  live  as  Adam  lived  before  he  sinned, 
then  reject  the  Gospel  and  go  out  of  existence. 


5^4  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Surely,  this  is  a  gospel  that  ought  to  win  con- 
verts in  every  jail. 

Beyond  question  it  is  a  gospel  that  fills  the 
Devil  with  delight. 

When  Christ  comes  the  followers  of  Russell 
will  be  left  outside  the  gate  to  woe  and  death 
Jiere — then  will  they  indeed  be  raised  from  the 
dead  in  the  second  resurrection,  die  a  second 
time,  lose  their  bodies  in  the  destroying  fire,  but 
instead  of  annihilation — as  bodiless  ghosts  exist 
forever  under  the  wrath  of  that  God  and  Christ 
they  were  taught  to  deny. 

False  teachers  in  the  professing  Church  will 
he  left  behind. 

Teachers  in  the  Church  who  deny  the  Virgin 
Birth. 

The  issue  in  the  Virgin  Birth  is  clear  and  sim- 
ple. It  is,  whether  God  the  Father  actually  as 
a  father  begot  Jesus  out  of  Mary;  or,  whether 
He  was  begotten  by  a  human  father. 

If  he  were  begotten  by  a  human  father  (as 
personality  comes  from  the  father  and  not  the 
mother)  his  personality  was  finite,  not  infinite. 
If  He  were  finite  and  not  infinite  He  was  not 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  525. 

God,  If  He  were  not  God  He  was  not  the  Sec- 
ond Person  of  the  Trinity.  If  He  were  not  the 
Second  Person  of  the  Trinity  then  none  is,  there 
is  no  Trinity.  If  He  were  not  the  Second  Per- 
son of  the  Trinity  and  therefore  not  God,  He 
could  not  raise  Himself  from  the  dead;  but 
since  in  Scripture  the  Trinity,  Father  Son  and 
Holy  Spirit  are  always  seen  working  together 
and  never  apart;  as  the  Father  is  said  to  raise 
the  Son,  and  the  Spirit  is  said  to  raise  the  Son, 
and  the  Son  is  said  to  raise  Himself;  and  as  the 
Father  and  the  Spirit  could  not  raise  the  Son 
unless  the  Son  worked  as  God  in  concert  with 
them,  then  as  He  was  not  God  and  could  not 
raise  Himself  and  therefore  could  not  work  in 
concert  with  them,  then  the  Father  did  not  raise 
Him,  the  Spirit  did  not  raise  Him,  He  never 
was  raised  from  the  dead. 

Deny  the  Virgin  Birth,  the  logic  of  it  not  only 
sweeps  away  the  divine  Trinity,  it  shuts  Christ 
up  in  His'grave  forever  and  sweeps  Christianity 
as  a  revealed  faith  from  God  out  of  the  world 
forever. 

No  matter  how  much  the  teacher  may  say  he 


526  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

believes  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  his  doc- 
trine belies  his  profession  the  moment  he  denies 
the  Virgin  Birth.  Without  that,  on  the  basis  of 
the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  resurrec- 
tion is  impossible. 

Such  teachers  deny  the  Lord  who  bought 
them  and  can  have  no  part  with  Christ  when  He 
comes. 

Teachers  ivho  deny  the  blood  of  Christ  will 
be  left  behind. 

Those  who  deny  the  redeeming  value  of  the 
blood  of  Christ  are  like  Cain,  who  ignored  the 
moral  and  judicial  distance  between  himself  and 
God,  refused  to  recognize  that  the  penalty  of 
death  was  upon  him  and  that  his  only  ground 
of  approach  to  a  holy  God  was  by  and  through 
an  atoning  sacrifice;  his  only  hope  of  accept- 
ance in  offering  a  substitute  to  meet  the  claims 
of  God  against  him.  Like  Cain  they  turn  away 
from  the  sacrifice,  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross,  offer 
to  God  the  culture  of  the  flesh,  their  own  good 
works,  their  own  character,  and  like  Cain  are  re- 
pudiated and  rejected  of  God  who  insistently 
and  graciously  bids  them  offer  the  sin-offering 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5^7 

which,  as  in  Cain's  day  "lieth  at  the  door,"  the 
crucified  Christ,  offer  Him  and  be  saved. 

In  denying  the  blood  these  teachers  and  all 
who  follow  their  evil  way  are  face  to  face  with 
the  solemn  Word  of  God. 

''Without  shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission." 

No!  it  is  blood  all  the  way  down  from  the  be- 
ginning, blood  the  only  way  of  hope  for  lost  and 
sinful  man. 

Blood  there  at  Eden's  gates,  the  blood  of  sac- 
rifice, the  covering  of  nakedness  with  the  cover 
made  from  the  skins  of  the  bleeding  victim,  blood 
the  only  ground  on  which  the  guilty  pair  could 
turn  and  face  the  world  and  claim  the  right  to 
live.  Blood  on  Abel's  altar  making  it  a  better 
offering  than  that  of  Cain.  Blood  on  Abraham's 
altar  on  Mount  Moriah,  the  blood  of  a  provided 
substitute  which  saved  his  son.  Blood  on  that 
passover  night  in  Egypt  which  saved  the  people 
of  Israel  from  the  sentence  of  death  against  the 
first  born  iii  the  land.  Blood  on  the  brazen  altar 
and  the  golden  altar  and  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
in  the  wilderness.  Blood  sprinkling  the  book  of 
the  covenant.     Blood  yonder  on  the  cross,  the 


a-' 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 


blood  of  Him  who  was  the  foreordained  Lamb 
of  God.  All  the  blood  of  all  the  ofiferings  spell- 
ing as  they  spilled,  the  blood  of  Christ  and  out 
of  every  crimson  drop  crying,  "The  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." 
Blood  on  the  throne  of  God,  turning  it  from  a 
throne  of  judgment  to  a  throne  of  grace.  The 
blood  that  alone  gives  right  and  undisputed  title 
to  enter  the  gates  of  pearl.  Yes !  those  who  deny 
the  blood  deny  the  whole  crimson  illuminated 
path  from  grace  to  glory,  deny  the  only  way  of 
salvation  God  has  revealed  to  men. 

He  who  denies  the  blood  of  Christ  proclaims 
himself  outside  the  blood-sealed  covenant  of 
grace  and  will  be  left  outside  the  blood-bought 
and  Heaven-provided  home. 

All  unbelievers  avill  be  left  behind  when 
Christ  comes  for  His  Church. 

What  a  fearful  separation  will  take  place. 

The  fearfulness  of  it  lies  in  the  fact  of  its  ii?i- 
minency. 

It  might  be  at  any  time. 

There  is  nothing  between  us  and  that  separa- 
tion but  the  coming  of  Christ. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  5^9 

There  is  nothing  between  us  and  that  coming 
but  the  sound  of  His  trump. 

Should  the  trumpet  sound  the  elect  of  God 
in  Christ  would  be  caught  up  to  meet  a  coming 
Lord. 

All  others  would  be  left  behind. 

And  there  is  no  hope  for  those  who  shall  be 
left  behind. 

They  did  not  care  for  the  truth  when  they 
had  it. 

They  ignored  it. 

Some  of  them  resisf^.d  it 

Others  mocked  and  made  light  of  it. 

God  does  not  forget. 

Since  they  would  not  have  the  truth,  He  will 
send  them  strong  delusion. 

He  will  allow  them  to  be  taken  as  in  a  snare. 
He  will  allow  them  to  be  captivated,  seduced 
and  completely  caught  by  the  Great  Lie  that  is 
coming  on  the  earth. 

They  would  not  have  the  true  Christ. 

They  shall  be  caught  in  the  toils  of  a  false 
Christ. 

They  would  not  be  saved. 


530  THE  GREAT  SEPx\RATION 

He  will  see  to  it  that  they  shall  all  be  damned. 

Hear  what  is  written  in  the  Holy  Book: 

*'And  for  this  cause  God  shall  send  them 
strong  delusion,  that  they  should  believe  the  lie: 

''That  they  all  might  be  damned  who  believed 
not  the  truth." 

He  sent  the  Spirit  to  convict  them  of  the  truth. 

They  resisted  the  Spirit  of  truth. 

He  will  send  them  the  deceiving  spirit  of  un- 
truth. 

They  will  yield  to  that  spirit  and  accept  the 
lie. 

The  Holy  Spirit  would  have  been  their  seal 
unto  life  eternal. 

The  Spirit  of  untruth  of  open  falsehood  shall 
be  their  seal  unto  eternal  death. 

Unbeliever!  if  Christ  came  to-night  the  door 
of  hope  and  salvation  would  be  shut. 

You  would  be  left  out. 

Separation  from  all  who  have  believed. 

What  a  separation! 

To  all  I  have  said  there  are  two  corollaries : 

I.  Every  one  of  you  who  professes  the  name 
of  Christ  should  come  out  and  make  your  call- 
ing and  election  sure. 


THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  '        53 1 

That  means,  find  out  whether  you  really  be- 
lieve or  whether  you  have  only  a  name  to  live 
and  are  actually,  spiritually  dead.  Find  out 
whether  you  are  indifferent  to  the  claims  of  God 
and  Christ. 

Find  out  whether  the  Christian  profession  is 
an  irksome  or  a  joyous  thing  to  you. 

Arouse!  because  the  time  may  be  short. 

Arouse!  because  a  separation  will  take  place 
between  those  who  are  really  Christ's  and  those 
who  have  only  the  profession  of  His  name. 

Nothing  could  be  sadder  than  to  be  a  mere 
professor  when  Christ  comes. 

Nothing  can  be  sadder  than  to  have  your  name 
written  in  the  book  of  the  Church  down  here, 
and  not  in  the  book  of  life  of  the  Church  in 
Heaven,  up  there. 

Nothing  could  be  sadder,  more  heart-breaking 
than  to  hear  Him  say — in  that  hour: 

"^7  know  you  not  whence  ye  are — depart  from 
me!' 

2.  //  is  time  that  you  who  make  no  profession 
of  His  name  should  arouse. 

There  is  no  question,  no  need  to  question  what 


532  THE  GREAT  SEPARATION 

Would  befall  you  if  Christ  should  come  before 
morning. 

If  He  came  and  found  you  as  you  are,  an  un- 
believer, walking  after  the  flesh  and  not  after  the 
Spirit  you  would  be  left  behind  to  certain  woe. 

Do  not  trifle  with  your  purchased  oppor- 
tunity. 

Grace  offers  it  to  you. 

Judgment  will  not  return  it  to  you. 

Of  all  follies  none  is  greater  than  to  purchase 
a  cup  of  eternal  woe  hereafter  for  the  price  of  a 
brimming,  but  brief  cup  of  pleasure  now. 

Whatever  else  hell  may  be,  it  is  hell,  and  will 
be  hell,  to  look  back  at  lost  opportunities. 

It  is  hell  to  have  enjoyed  the  pleasures  of  sin 
for  a  season,  and  lose  the  pleasures  of  heaven 
forever. 

The  gulf  is  not  yet  fixed. 

If  Christ  should  come,  then  between  you  and 
those  who  are  His — the  gulf  will  be  fixed  for- 
ever. 

There  is  no  bridge. 

It  yawns  bridgeless  forever — a  wide — meas- 
ureless— eternal  gulf  of  separation. 


VUI 

THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 


The  Great  Tribulation. 


"For  then  shall  be  great  tribulation  such  as 
was  not  since  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  this 
time,  no,  nor  ever  shall  be"  (Matthew  24 :  21). 

In  presenting  this  theme  I  shall  divide  it  into 
four  simple  parts: 

1.  The  Cause  of  the  Great  Tribulation. 

2.  The  Character  of  the  Great  Tribulation. 

3.  The  Dramatic  Ending  of  the  Great  Tribu- 
lation. 

4.  The  Beginning  of  the  Great  Tribulation. 
I.   The  Cause  of  the  Great  Tribulation. 
The  cause  is  threefold : 

Moral. 

Satanic. 

Judicial. 

//  is  moral. 

The  moral  cause  is  found  in  the  failure  of  the 
Gentile  nations  to  fulfill  the  commission  granted 
to  them  of  God. 

God  granted  this  commission  in  the  days  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon. 


530  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

He  granted  it  to  them  because  of  the  failure 
of  the  Jews  to  fulfill  the  commission  He  had 
originally  given  to  them. 

He  had  called  the  children  of  Israel  to  be  His 
peculiar  people.  He  had  separated  them  from 
all  other  nations  unto  Himself.  He  had  by  an 
outstretched  arm  and  mighty  power  planted 
them  in  the  land  of  Palestine.  He  ordained  this 
land  to  be  the  geographical  center  of  the  earth 
and  His  chosen  people  to  be  the  political  and 
governmental  center.  He  purposed  to  send 
them  His  own  Son  to  be  their  incarnate  King 
and  through  Him  and  them  rule  the  world  in 
righteousness  and  peace,  bringing  blessing  and 
benefaction  to  every  creature. 

The  nation  had  utterly  failed.  Ten  tribes  had 
gone  into  idolatry.  The  Assyrians  came  and 
carried  them  captives  into  Adiabene,  into  the 
East,  and  for  twenty-five  hundred  years  they 
have  been  nationally  and  historically  lost. 

The  remaining  two  tribes  likewise  turned  to 
idolatry.  Then  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Bab- 
ylon, besieged  Jerusalem,  took  it  and  carried  the 
people  captive  to  Babylon,  the  golden  city. 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  537 

The  Lord  at  once  proposed  to  transfer  the 
rulership  of  the  world  officially  from  the  hand 
of  the  Jew  to  the  Gentile. 

He  would  put  an  end  to  Jewish  time  and  bring 
in  Gentile  time — ''The  tim.es  of  the  Gentiles." 

He  now  purposed  to  rule  the  world  through 
four  successive  Gentile  world  powers. 

These  powers  He  indicated  in  the  different 
materials  of  the  statue  or  image  which  Nebu- 
chadnezzar saw  in  his  dream  and  forgot,  and 
which  Daniel,  one  of  the  Hebrew  captives  in 
Babylon,  under  the  inspiration  of  God  inter- 
preted. 

There  were  four  metals  in  the  image: 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Brass. 

Iron. 

The  iron  was  mixed  with  brittle,  incohesive 
clay. 

The  gold  set  forth  Babylon. 

Silver — Medo-Persia. 

Brass — Greece. 

Iron  in  the  two  legs  the  Roman  empire  under 


538  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

its  first  political  division  into  Western  and 
Eastern  Empire. 

The  iron  and  clay  mixed  in  the  ten  toes,  the 
ten-fold  confederation  or  the  second  and  final 
division  of  the  fourth  or  Roman  empire. 

These  four  empires  or  kingdoms  are  corrob- 
orated and  further  illustrated  by  a  vision  which 
later  on  God  gave  to  Daniel  himself  in  w^hich  he 
saw^  four  wild  beasts  rise  up  out  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea. 

The  first  was — a  lion. 

The  second — a  bear. 

The  third — a  leopard. 

The  fourth — a  monster  with  ten  horns. 

The  lion  is — Babylon. 

The  bear — Medo-Persia. 

The  leopard — Greece. 

The  monster — Rome. 

Two  of  these  kingdoms  were  precised  and 
named  in  a  still  later  vision  given  to  Daniel. 

He  saw  a  ram  pushing  toward  the  west. 

He  saw  a  he  goat  rushing  to  the  east  to  meet 
him,  overthrow  him  and  trample  him  under  foot. 

The  ram  is  Medo-Persia,  the  he  goat  Greece, 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 


539 


and  the  symbolic  prophecy  concerning  Greece 
comes  on  down  to  our  day. 

The  Lord  warned  that  this  rulership  in  the 
hands  of  the  Gentiles  would  prove  a  failure  as 
everything  which  God  has  ever  entrusted  to  man. 

This  announced  failure  is  to  be  seen  in  the  de- 
terioration or  descent  in  the  character  of  the 
metals  as  named  in  their  order  in  the  image. 

First,  gold,  then  silver,  then  brass,  after  that 
iron,  and  last  of  all  clay  which  is  corrupt,  disin- 
tegrated stone,  is  brittle,  incohesive,  may  be 
massed  together,  but  is  never  united. 

Gold  sets  forth  rulership  directly  from  the 
hand  of  God  and  is  the  symbol  and  seal  of  "the 
divine  right  of  kings." 

The  clay  stands  for  the  people,  for  man  in  the 
mass. 

This  may  be  seen  in  the  statement  of  Saint 
Paul: 

"O  man,  who  art  thou  that  repliest  against 
God?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  him  that 
formed  it.  Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus? 

"Hath  not  the  potter  power  over  the  clay,  of 


540  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

the  same  lump  to  make  one  vessel  unto  honour 
and  another  unto  dishonour." 

Man  as  man  is  here  compared  to  clay. 

This  is  corroborated  by  the  prophet  Isaiah. 

"But  now,  O  Lord,  Thou  art  our  Father;  we 
are  the  clay,  and  Thou  our  potter." 

The  Lord  Himself  speaking  to  Israel  says: 

"As  the  clay  in  the  potter's  hand,  so  are  ye  in 
mine  hand,  O  house  of  Israel." 

Israel  is  the  figure  of  the  natural  man,  man 
seen  as  to  genus,  in  the  mass,  the  people. 

Clay  sets  forth  the  people. 

As  each  material  of  which  the  statue  is  formed 
indicates  distinctive  political  rule,  then  the  clay 
symbolizes  rule  in  the  hand  of  the  people.  The 
Greek  word  for  people  is  deemos,  from  which 
we  get  our  word  democracy.  The  rule  of  the 
people,  government  in  the  hands  of  the  people. 

Thus  the  clay  in  the  image  is  a  picture  of  de- 
mocracy. Gold  represents  monarchy,  is  the  first 
in  order  in  the  statue,  and  sets  forth  that  form 
of  government  which  is  directly  from  the  hand 
of  God — as  Daniel  says  when  addressing  Nebu- 
chadnezzar: 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  541 

"Thou,  O  king,  art  a  king  of  kings:  for  the 
God  of  heaven  hath  given  thee  a  kingdom, 
power,  and  strength,  and  glory.  *  *  *  and 
hath  made  thee  ruler.'' 

The  clay  is  the  last  form  of  rule,  is  the  result 
of  the  overthrow  and  departure  from  the  previ- 
ous forms  of  monarchy  and  is  the  farthest  away 
from  the  direct  ordination  of  God. 

Clay  is  brittle,  easily  broken  into  separate 
pieces  and  scattered.  It  is  in  itself  the  symbol  of 
weakness  and  final  failure  in  government. 

It  was  a  prophecy  that  rulership  in  the  hands 
of  the  Gentiles  would  become  successively  far- 
ther and  farther  away  from  God. 

This  symbolic  prophecy  has  been  and  is  now 
being  fulfilled. 

Cyrus  at  the  head  of  his  Persian  host  came 
against  Babylon  and  overthrew  it. 

Babylon  failed  because  Nebuchadnezzar  for- 
getting he  had  received  his  grant  of  power  from 
the  hand  of  the  Most  High  God,  walked  about 
Babylon,  and  as  he  looked  at  its  grandeur,  at  the 
lifted  height  of  the  tower  of  Belus,  the  arcaded, 
marble  streets,  the  hanging  gardens  and  all  the 


542  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

wonder  and  glory  of  the  marvellous  city,  filled 
with  pride  and  boastful  exaltation  said: 

"Is  not  this  great  Babylon,  that  /  have  built 
for  the  house  of  the  kingdom,  by  the  might  of 
mv  power,  and  for  the  honour  of  my  majesty?'' 

After  him  his  grandson,  Belshazzar,  gathered 
his  debauched  courtiers,  his  harem  of  beau- 
tiful concubines  and  holding  high  revel  in  the 
banqueting  hall  of  his  palace,  drank  wine  out  of 
the  golden  vessels  taken  from  the  temple  of  God 
in  Jerusalem,  praised  the  gods  of  Babylon, 
praised,  debauched  and  danced  at  the  very  hour 
when  Cyrus  and  his  glittering  soldiery  sweeping 
in  upon  the  drunken  revellers,  slew  them  and 
took  the  kingdom. 

Greece  overthrew  Medo-Persia. 

Medo-Persia  failed  because,  although  God 
had  named  and  ordained  Cyrus  before  he  was 
born,  the  kingdom  under  successive  rulers  de- 
parted as  a  nation  more  and  more  from  the  will 
of  God. 

Then  from  her  seven  hills  Rome  arose  and 
overthrew  Greece. 

Greece  failed  because  Alexander  of  Macedon 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION.  543 

led  his  Greeks  to  Babylon,  won  victory  after  vic- 
tory, swept  everything  before  him  and  forget- 
ting that  the  hand  of  God  had  opened  the  gates 
of  conquest  for  him,  exalted  himself  and  claimed 
the  place,  the  honors  and  the  adoration  belong- 
ing to  God.  God  smote  him  in  a  drunken  Baby- 
lonian orgy,  smashed  his  empire  into  four  great 
parts,  brought  Greece  back  to  her  original 
boundaries;  and  it  was  this  Greece,  crushed  and 
limited  that  Rome  overthrew. 

In  fulfillment  of  the  symbolic  forecast  of  the 
two  legs  of  iron  Rome  was  divided  into  Western 
and  Eastern  Empire. 

The  Western  Empire  came  to  an  end  in  the 
fifth  century. 

It  began  with  a  Romulus  and  ended  with  a 
Romulus.    It  lasted  about  twelve  hundred  years. 

The  Eastern  Empire  came  to  an  end  in  1453, 
when  the  Turks  defeated  John  Palaeologus  and 
took  Constantinople.  The  empire  had  lasted  a 
thousand  years. 

The  nations  occupying  the  territory  of  these 
four  original  kingdoms  have  been  erected  out  of 
them  or  built  upon  their  ruins. 


544  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

All  these  nations,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Turkish  Empire,  are,  so-called,  Christian  na- 
tions. 

The  Turks  are  neither  idolaters  nor  pagans. 
They  are  believers  in  God,  but  repudiate  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  God  the  Son  and  only- 
Saviour. 

Only  one  of  these  so-called  Christian  nations 
is  Protestant;  all  the  others  are  officially  Cath- 
olic. 

The  history  of  these  professed  Christian  na- 
tions has  been  a  history  of  intrigue,  diplomatic 
gambling,  chicanery,  fraud,  war,  conflict  and 
confusion,  tyranny,  oppression,  revolution  and 
despotism. 

To-day  all  the  nations  within  the  limit  of  the 
once  Roman  Empire  are  engaged  in  the  blood- 
iest and  most  wanton  of  all  wars.  Millions  of 
lives  are  being  sacrificed  in  battle,  in  hospital, 
in  sickness  and  disease.  Treasure  is  poured  out 
like  flowing  streams.  All  the  standards  of  civ- 
ilization are  broken  down  and  trampled  in  the 
mire  of  blood. 

We  have  now  reached  the  stage  of  the  clay — 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  545 

'democracy;  or,  if  you  like,  republicanism — the 
rule  of  the  people. 

The  rule  of  the  people,  democracy,  is,  practi- 
cally, universal.  England  is  more  democratic 
than  the  United  States.  George  the  Fifth,  king 
of  England,  is  nothing  more  than  a  figure-head, 
whose  word,  thought,  advice,  wish  or  sugges- 
tion, count  for  nothing.  He  is  a  negligible  quan- 
tity. He  has  no  influence  in  legislating  a  law, 
shaping  a  policy  or  moulding  a  campaign.  All 
the  insignia  of  royalty  and  the  baubles  of  rank 
and  power  are  in  final  terms,  meaningless. 

France  is  a  republic  built  upon  a  decapitated 
monarchy. 

Spain  has  a  king,  but  the  present  dynasty  is 
the  result  of  a  revolution,  the  people  are  waiting 
the  opportunity  to  overturn  the  kingdom  and 
like  Portugal  set  up  the  rule  of  democracy. 

Italy,  like  England,  is  a  monarchy  only  in 
name.  Legislation  is  in  the  hand  of  a  demo- 
cratic parliament. 

If  incohesion,  revolution  and  lack  Df  unity 
constitute  some  of  the  elements  and  character- 
istics of  democracy,  then  Greece  is  democratic. 


54^  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

The  Balkans  in  their  increasing  conflict,  riot, 
confusion  and  rebellion  bear  witness  both  to  the 
rule  and  misrule  of  the  people. 

Before  the  war  the  Socialists  in  the  Reichstag 
of  Germany  were  the  emphasized  and  aggressive 
minority  which  put  a  check  upon  and  gave 
warning  to  the  monarchy.  The  war  has  simply 
damned  up  the  spirit  of  revolution  and  unrest, 
in  the  meantime  gathering  force  and  determina- 
tion to  break,  sooner  or  later,  over  all  bounds. 

From  the  days  of  Nebuchadnezzar  until  this 
day  human  government  in  the  hands  of  the  Gen- 
tiles has  been  a  costly  failure. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar nor  the  debauchery  of  a  Belshazzar.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  speak  of  Rome,  of  the  Twelve 
Caesars,  of  emperors  elected  by  Praetorian  guards 
or  made  such  by  an  assassin's  knife  or  a  poison- 
er's cup.  Come  down  to  the  days  nearer  our 
own  time. 

Read  the  story  of  England.  The  conflicts  and 
the  wars.  Read  the  record  of  the  War  of  the 
Roses,  where  professedly  for  the  sake  of  a  white 
or  a  red  rose  men  cut  each  other's  throat  .and 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION.  547 

soaked  the  land  in  blood,  but  fought  actually 
that  the  few  might  live  at  the  expense  of  the 
many.  Read  the  story  of  the  Four  Georges  as 
described  by  the  incomparable  pen  and  the  keen 
satire  of  a  Thackeray. 

Look  at  France  in  the  zenith  of  her  glory 
under  a  Louis  Fourteenth,  le  rot  soliel,  the  sun 
king.  Look  at  that  palace  at  Versailles,  built  in 
the  place  of  a  swamp,  the  foundation  alone  cost- 
ing so  much  that  it  bankrupted  the  nation.  Go 
through  the  palace  where  titled  women  felt  it 
their  highest  privilege  to  yield  to  the  demands 
and  pleasures  of  a  king's  unbridled  sensualism. 
Go  through  the  palace  and  read  the  things  scrib- 
bled on  wall  and  door  by  a  lecherous  monarch; 
go  out  into  the  green  park.  Into  the  Grand  and 
Little  Trianon;  observe  the  traps,  the  secret 
doors,  the  sliding  panels,  the  tempting  boudoirs; 
read  the  story  of  the  reign  of  Louis  the  Sixteenth, 
the  man  who  was  more  successful  as  a  locksmith 
than  a  monarch;  go  down  to  the  little  Swiss 
village  built  for  a  queen  that  she  might  play  the 
part  of  a  beautiful  milk-maid;  watch  her  sur- 
rounded by  her  court  of  light  and  easy  virtue 


548  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

beauties,  the  crowd  of  polite  and  profligate 
princes  as  they  laugh  and  jest  and  say,  "After  us 
the  deluge" ;  while  over  the  hedge  row  there  the 
gamins  from  the  streets  of  Paris,  the  bag  and 
hatchet  women,  the  women  from  Saint  Antoine 
and  the  markets  are  crying,  "bread,  bread,  give 
us  bread." 

Go  behind  the  cabinet  doors  of  the  nations 
now  engaged  in  war.  See  the  treaties  torn  to 
shreds  as  of  no  more  value  than  so  much  "white 
paper,"  listen  to  the  intrigue,  the  kingly  and  min- 
isterial lying  that  caused  the  swords  to  leap  from 
scabbards  and  the  shells  to  echo  from  the  can- 
non's mouth. 

The  Gentile  governments  have  failed  to  glor- 
ify God  and  establish  righteousness.  They  have 
been  unable  to  maintain  peace  except  at  inter- 
vals and  then  only  by  the  sharpness  of  the  sword. 
They  have  failed  to  produce  the  greatest  good 
to  the  greatest  number.  They  have  made  the 
rich  to  grow  richer  and  the  poor,  poorer.  They 
have  filled  the  earth  not  only  with  tryanny  and 
oppression,  riot,  revolution,  rebellion,  war  and 
confusion,  but,  led  men  to  repudiate  God  and  cry 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  549 

out  against  His  rule  as  well  as  the  rule  of  tyrants 
and  oppressors,  the  conquerors  and  despots  who 
claimed  authority  in  His  name. 

This  utter  and  moral  failure  on  the  part  of  the 
Gentile  nations  and  particularly  so  on  the  part 
of  the  so-called  Christian  nations  is  one  of  the 
contributing  causes  which  will  bring  on  the 
Great  Tribulation. 

The  second  cause  is  Satanic. 

God  created  a  great  angel,  the  Chief  of  the 
Cherubim. 

He  was  perfect,  beautiful. 

He  was  Lucifer,  son  of  the  morning. 

God  gave  him  this  world  in  its  original  crea- 
tion as  a  province  in  the  infinite  empire  that  with 
his  subject  angels  he  might  live  in  it  and  rule  it 
to  the  glory  of  God. 

He  became  lifted  up  with  pride  at  his  own 
beauty,  wisdom  and  power.  He  was  unwilling 
to  be  a  subordinate  god.  He  would  rule  the 
world  for  himself.  He  and  his  angels  rebelled. 
God  overthrew  them.  The  earth  received  the 
shock  and  fell  into  a  cataclysmic  chaos.  Like  a 
great  funeral  hearse  it  glided  through  space,  a 


550  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

black,  sunless,  silent  thing.  How  long  this  state 
lasted  is  not  of  the  record.  Then  God  lifted  it 
out  of  its  rayless  night,  reformed  it,  created  man 
and  set  him  up  to  be  the  ruler  in  the  place  of  him 
who  by  his  rebellion  had  become  a  Devil,  a  scan- 
dalizer  and  that  Satan  who  is  the  adversary,  the 
antagonist  and  abiding  negative  to  God's  eternal 
positive. 

The  Devil  tempted  man  with  the  same  ambi- 
tion which  caused  his  own  fall. 

He  offered  him  role  and  rulership  as  God  of 
this  world,  but,  in  partnership  with  himself. 

He  led  man  to  turn  his  back  on  God. 

Man  became  the  Devil's  incarnation,  his  dupe 
and  slave. 

The  Devil  led  him  into  false  religions,  into 
idolatry  and  infidelic  philosophies.  He  it  is  who 
has  been  behind  the  governments  of  the  world, 
behind  the  thrones  of  emperors  and  the  chairs 
of  presidents;  behind  intrigue,  diplomacy  and 
war. 

Two  thousand  years  ago  God  sent  His  Son 
into  the  world  as  the  new,  the  second  and  the 
last  man. 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  551 

The  Devil  attempted  to  tempt  Him  as  he  did 
the  first  man.  He  offered  Him  the  rulership  of 
the  world  in  partnership  with  himself  on  condi- 
tion that  He  would  own  him  as  supreme,  then 
he  would  use  all  his  power  to  make  Him  the 
outward  and  manifested  God  of  this  world.  As 
he  had  destroyed  the  relation  between  God  and 
the  first  man  he  would  now  invalidate  the  incar- 
nation by  making  the  humanity  of  Christ  the 
medium  for  his  own  manifestation  and  visibility 
in  the  flesh. 

He  failed. 

The  Son  of  God  was  crucified  as  a  sacrifice 
for  sin,  rose,  ascended  to  heaven  and  took  His 
seat  upon  the  infinite  throne  as  the  giver  of  new 
and  eternal  life  to  men.  He  began  the  creation 
of  His  Church  as  His  spiritual  Body  on  the 
earth. 

The  Devil  at  once  sought  to  tempt  the  Church 
and  render  it  inert.  He  offered  it  the  same  old 
temptation  he  had  offered  to  the  Son  of  God — • 
the  rulership  of  the  world. 

The  Church  yielded  to  the  temptation. 

It  repudiated  the  attitude  of  separation  from 


552  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

and  pilgrimage  through  the  world.  It  became  a 
Church  of  State,  supported  by  the  governments 
of  earth  and  identified  with  them. 

Rome  is  the  historic  professing  Church.  For 
centuries  she  ruled  the  world  till  the  very  men- 
tion of  her  name  caused  even  kings  to  tremble. 
She  so  ruled  and  terrorized,  tortured  and  slew 
all  opposed  to  her;  so  filled  her  pathway  with 
the  blood  of  martyrs,  shut  out  light  and  truth; 
so  brought  in  spiritual  ignorance,  ecclesiastical 
superstition  and  idolatry,  that  the  epoch  of  her 
unhindered  domination  is  known  as  "the  dark 
ages." 

Some  four  hundred  years  ago  the  Reformation 
broke  out  and  on  the  waves  of  its  protest  Rome 
for  a  while  was  tossed  and  swept  downward  to 
the  Mediterranean,  The  Protestant  Church 
went  forth  with  the  rallying  cry  of  "The  world's 
conversion,"  and  the  spiritual  conquest  of  it 
through  the  Gospel,  and — failed.  To-day,  the 
professing  Church  (the  Protestant)  is  seeking 
to  make  an  alliance  with  world  thought  and 
world  culture,  concedes  to  the  modern  idea  of 
socialistic   redemption,   yields   to   the   so-called 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  553 

''higher"  criticism  of  its  Bible  and  theology  and 
does  so  that  it  may  get  a  more  influential  grasp 
upon  the  world  itself  and  fulfill  its  now  inhering 
ambition  for  rulership. 

By  this  Satanic  suggestion  of  world  empire 
has  the  professing  Church  been  deceived,  so 
blinded  and  hindered  that  it  has  lost  sight  of  the 
original  ministry  committed  to  it  and  the  place 
it  should  occupy  till  the  Lord  returns. 

But,  in  the  professing  Church  the  Lord  has 
His  elect,  those  who  constitute  the  real  body  of 
Christ  and  through  the  operation  of  the  Spirit 
dwelling  in  them  Satan  has  been  checked  and 
restrained. 

Since  the  incarnation  of  God's  Son,  however, 
the  supreme  ambition  of  the  Devil  has  been  to 
match  it  with  the  incarnation  of  himself.  He 
seeks  to  find  a  man  in  whom  he  may  enthrone 
himself  with  all  the  marvel  and  miracle  of  the 
Christ  and  through  him  become  the  unique  and 
indisputable  god  of  the  world. 

He  knows  his  doom.  He  knows  God  will  per- 
mit him  to  find  his  man  and  for  a  season  through 
him  deceive  the  sons  of  men  and  reign  in  the 


554  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

midst  of  their  welcoming  applause  as  very  god 
incarnate. 

He  knows  his  time  is  short,  and  as  the  age 
draws  to  a  close  and  the  hour  of  consummation 
comes  on,  he  will  unloose  all  the  bonds  of  wick- 
edness, stir  up  all  hindering  forces  of  unright- 
eousness, unbelief,  infidelity  and  lawlessness  and 
prepare  the  way  for  his  anticipated  and  long 
coveted  moment  of  subtle,  yet  spectacular 
triumph. 

There  are  two  immense  movements  of  thought 
which  may  well  inspire  every  thinker  to  stand 
upon  the  alert. 

On  the  one  side  there  is  the  constantly  grow- 
ing effort  to  deny  and  entirely  repudiate  the  doc- 
trine of  the  deity  of  Christ.  You  will  hear  and 
read  eulogium  after  eulogium  of  His  manhood 
and  the  exceeding  greatness  and  marvel  of  that 
manhood;  but,  the  slightest  analysis  will  show 
that  this  exaltation  of  His  human  character  is  a 
blind  behind  which  His  enemies  are  seeking  to 
undermine  His  essential  standing  and  relation- 
ship as  God  of  God  and  very  God  of  very  God. 

This  setting  aside  of  the  plain  scriptural  state- 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION.  555 

merit  that  the  fulness  of  the  deity  dwelleth  in 
Him  bodily  comes  not  only  from  open  infidels, 
from  those  who  refuse  to  accept  the  Bible  as  a 
revelation  from  God,  but  from  those  inside  the 
Church,  from  those  who  profess  to  be  ministers 
and  teachers  of  Christ;  men  who  have  been 
graduated  from  our  theological  institutions; 
who  enter  our  pulpits  and  talk  mouthingly  of  the 
sweetness  and  beauty  of  Christ;  who  dwell  upon 
His  moral  grandeur,  His  moral  sacrifice.  His 
devotedness  of  self  in  the  interests  of  others; 
men  who  pass  lightly  over  His  birth,  who  find 
in  it  no  greater  miracle  than  that  which  occurs 
in  the  wonderful  birth  of  every  child;  who  find 
His  miracles  only  in  His  deeds  of  kindness,  in 
the  purity  of  His  every  day  life;  who  talk  of 
His  death  as  a  martyrdom  due  to  the  ignorance 
and  intrigue  of  men;  who  talk  of  His  resurrec- 
tion simply  as  the  passing  on  of  a  deathless  spirit 
and  the  rising  up  on  account  of  the  unselfish 
character  of  His  death,  of  the  truth  and  strength 
of  the  larger  and  more  advanced  humanity  He 
came  to  represent.     These  men  speak  so  much 


556  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

of  Christ  on  earth  that  little  thought  is  awarded 
Him  as  a  living  person  in  heaven. 

The  skill  and  subtlety  with  which  these  teach- 
ers denude  the  Son  of  God  of  His  deity,  His 
divine  attributes  are  so  great,  so  thoroughly 
"modern"  and  "progressive,"  that  insensibly 
Christ  comes  to  be  regarded  rather  as  a  living 
principle  and  is  no  longer  thought  of  and  wor- 
shipped as  the  mighty  God,  "Maker  of  heaven 
and  earth,"  and  the  final  personal  and  visible 
judge  of  all  mankind. 

On  the  other  hand,  everywhere  there  is  the 
exaltation  of  man.  The  great  things  he  has  done 
and  is  doing  are  catalogued  and  continually  re- 
peated. He  bridges  gulfs.  He  tunnels  moun- 
tains. He  sails  the  sea,  on  the  sea  and  under  the 
sea.  He  can  talk  without  wires  and  send  his  mes- 
sage round  the  earth  in  a  quick  and  girdling 
flash.  He  can  fly  up  into  the  heavens  with  ma- 
chines that  are  heavier  than  air  and  hopes  some 
day  (and  secretly  believes  it)  in  spite  of  atmos- 
pheric pressure  to  cross  the  threshold  of  other 
worlds.  Winds  and  waves  obey  him.  He  has 
harnessed  nature's  forces.    Because  of  his  multi- 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  557 

plied  and  amazing  triumph  the  question  is  in- 
creasingly repeated: 

"What  will  not  man  do  next?" 

Everywhere  man  is  being  exalted  into  the 
realm  of  deity.  In  proportion  as  the  deity  of 
Christ  is  openly  denied,  the  deity  of  man  is  per- 
sistently suggested. 

If  I  were  to  stand  before  an  audience  of  the 
world  and  affirm  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh;  that  He  it  was  who 
before  His  incarnation  created  all  things;  that 
He  is  even  now  the  great  God  who  upholdeth  all 
things  by  the  word  of  His  power,  there  might  be 
a  few  who  would  not  be  startled ;  but,  the  great 
majority  would  give  no  sign  of  acceptance  or 
approval;  should  I,  however,  stand  before  the 
sam.e  audience  and  suggest  that  man  might  yet 
show  himself  to  be  divine,  to  have  in  himself 
resident  deific  powers  that  would  eventually 
make  him  as  very  god  in  this  world,  there  would 
be  an  almost  instant  acceptance  of  the  proposi- 
tion and  generous  applause. 

And  when  you  look  yonder  at  Saint  Peter's  in 
Rome   on    a   feast   day,    see   the   vast  building 


3:) 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 


filled  with  thousands  of  people;  and  when  the 
pope  is  brought  in  on  the  shoulders  of  "the 
noble  guard,"  the  people  falling  down,  prostrat- 
ing themselves  and  calling  him  "Holy  Father," 
"Our  Lord  God,  the  Pope";  when  women  in 
this  country  kneel  before  a  "swami"  from  India, 
kiss  his  not  over  clean  feet  and  beg  the  privilege 
of  touching  but  the  hem  of  his  garment  in  the 
belief  that  some  deific  and  harmonious  wave  will 
be  distilled  and  undulate  w^ithin  their  wide  open 
and  receptive  souls;  when  thousands  of  the 
baser  sort  will  pack  the  streets  of  a  city  to  see  a 
victorious  prize  fighter,  some  superior  bruiser  of 
his  fellow  man  and  give  him  an  ovation;  when, 
in  short,  the  spirit  of  hero  worship  seemingly 
innate  in  man  waits  only  an  opportunity  to  ex- 
press itself  sometimes  in  a  delirium  of  surrender 
to  the  idol  of  the  hour  it  is  not  difficult  to  see 
how,  should  some  man  arrive  with  occult  pow- 
ers, doing  great  signs  and  wonders,  proving  him- 
self the  master  of  nature's  laws,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  how  such  an  one  might  be  owned  and 
worshipped  by  the  impressionable  multitude  as 
very  god. 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION.  559 

The  way  is  being  prepared  for  Satan's  man 
and  Satan's  exaltation  through  him  as  the  god 
of  the  world. 

The  third  cause  which  will  bring  on  the  Great 
Tribulation  is — 

Judicial. 

It  will  be  the  judicial  action  of  God. 

God  judges  and  punishes  nations  as  He  judges 
and  punishes  individuals. 

Just  as  He  smote  Israel  and  Babylon,  Medo- 
Persia,  Greece  and  Rome,  so  will  He  smite  the 
nations  of  the  earth  to-day.  He  has  a  contro- 
versy with  them  and,  specially,  with  those  na- 
tions which  calls  themselves,  "Christian." 

He  will  allow  evil  to  multiply  and  head  itself 
up  in  all  its  hideousness.  He  will  take  off  re- 
straint that  iniquity  may  reveal  itself.  He  will 
allow  it  to  grow  bold,  aggressive  and  defiant. 
He  will  take  the  wickedness  of  man,  violence, 
the  sword,  famine  and  pestilence,  all  the  logical 
consequences  of  sin,  of  disobedience  to  His  will 
and  law.  He  will  take  all  these  forces  and  make 
use  of  them  as  His  scourge,  as  "the  rod  of  His 
anger." 


560  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

It  is  worse  than  folly  to  attempt  to  apologize 
for  God  or  eliminate  Him  from  relationship  to 
the  forces  of  unrighteousness,  of  moral  and  phys- 
ical destruction  in  the  world.  He  Himself  dis- 
tinctly says : 

"I  will  send  the  sword,  the  famine  and  the 
pestilence  among  them,  till  they  be  consumed 
from  off  the  laad  that  I  have  given  unto  them." 

"And  I  will  persecute  them  with  the  sword, 
with  the  famine,  and  with  the  pestilence." 

"I  will  punish  them  that  dwell  in  the  land  of 
Egypt,  as  I  have  punished  Jerusalem,  by  the 
sword,  by  the  famine,  and  by  the  pestilence." 

"So  will  I  send  upon  you  famine  and  evil 
beasts,  and  they  shall  bereave  thee;  and  pesti- 
lence and  blood  shall  pass  through  thee;  and  I 
will  bring  the  sword  upon  thee,  1  the  Lord  have 
spoken  it." 

"He  that  is  in  the  field  shall  die  with  the 
sword;  and  he  that  is  in  the  city,  famine  and 
pestilence  shall  devour  him." 

"If  I  send  a  pestilence  into  that  land." 

"I  have  sent  among  you  the  pestilence  after  the 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  561 

manner  of  Egypt;  your  young  men  have  I  slain 
with  the  sword." 

He  makes  use  of  one  nation  to  punish  another. 

"For  thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Behold,  I  will 
bring  upon  Tyrus  Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of 
Babylon,  a  king  of  kings,  from  the  north,  with 
horses,  and  with  chariots,  and  with  horsemen, 
and  companies,  and  much  people. 

He  shall  slay  with  the  sword  thy  daughters  in 
the  field." 

Thus  the  threefold  cause  of  the  coming  Great 
Tribulation  will  be  moral,  Satanic  and  judicial. 
The  moral  failure  of  the  nations  in  the  grant  of 
power  given  to  them,  the  activity  of  Satan  look- 
ing and  moving  toward  his  pseudo  incarnation 
in  humanity  and  the  judgment  of  God,  using 
these  things  as  the  whips  and  the  scourges  with 
which  to  smite  the  unrighteousness  of  man. 
//.     The  Character  of  the  Great  Tribulation. 

There,  will  be  world-wide  war. 

The  battle  line  will  be  flung  round  the  far  cir- 
cumference of  the  earth.  There  will  not  be  a 
spot  on  the  globe  where  the  tramp  of  armed  men 
shall  not  be  heard  and  the  roar  of  conflict  filling 


562  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

the  air.  It  will  not  be  the  battle  of  mere  armies, 
forays  and  predatory  expeditions,  but  the  rush 
of  nation  against  nation  and  race  against  race. 
The  whole  earth  shall  be  filled  with  violence. 

Lawlessnesses  shall  be  multiplied,  not  only  the 
lawlessness  that  shall  violate  all  national  and  in- 
ternational pledges  and  look  upon  a  treaty  as  of 
no  more  value  than  a  "scrap"  of  paper,  but  law- 
lessness in  social  and  individual  life,  the  break- 
ing down  and  throwing  to  the  winds  of  old  stand- 
ards. The  people  will  be  in  a  state  of  revolt,  not 
only  against  kings  and  rulers,  but  against  condi- 
tions. They  will  rush  like  the  rushing  of  the 
seas,  unrest,  tumult  and  turmoil  will  sweep  like 
tidal  waves  bursting  over  all  distinctions  be- 
tween rich  and  poor,  capital  and  labor.  The 
rich  will  become  the  prey  of  the  mob  and  ac- 
cumulated wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  few  will 
be  seized  and  scattered  like  grains  of  sand;  as 
it  is  written: 

"Go  to  now,  ye  rich  men,  weep  and  wail  for 
your  miseries  that  are  coming  on  you. 

"Your  riches  are  corrupted,  and  your  garments 
are  moth  eaten. 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION.  563 

"Your  gold  and  silver  are  covered  with  rust; 
and  the  rust  of  them  shall  be  a  witness  against 
you,  and  shall  eat  your  flesh  like  fire.  Ye  have 
stored  up  treasure  for  the  last  days." 

There  shall  be  distress  of  nations.  We  are 
told  that  women  shall  enter  into  rule  and  because 
of  the  scarcity  of  men  women  shall  seek  after 
them  and  desire  them.  ''In  that  day  seven  wom- 
en shall  take  hold  of  one  man,  saying,  we  will 
eat  our  own  bread,  and  wear  our  own  apparel; 
only  let  us  be  called  by  thy  name,  to  take  away 
our  reproach";  then  shall  there  be  a  time  of 
manners  and  customs  in  which  the  license  of  the 
days  of  the  Directory  shall  seem  in  comparison 
as  virtue  itself. 

Famine  shall  be  abroad,  not  local  famine,  but 
world-wide,  gaunt  faces  and  starving  multitudes. 
Everywhere  the  cry  for  bread,  young  and  old 
dying  for  want  of  food. 

Green-pyed  pestilence  will  walk  hand  In  hand 
with  famine,  the  pestilence  that  will  rise  ghoul- 
like from  the  unburied  dead  of  battle,  the  poison 
floating  through  the  air,  speeding  on  its  way  at 
midnight  and  wasting  at  noonday. 


5^4  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

Out  of  this  famine  and  pestilence  vice  and 
crime  as  twin  terrors  shall  be  born  and  clutch  the 
throats  of  righteousness  and  truth. 

As  a  consequence  of  war  there  will  be  a  revolt 
of  revolts. 

People  will  refuse  any  longer  to  be  led  like 
beasts  to  the  slaughter.  They  shall  ask  them- 
selves, "Why  should  we  fight  or  die  like  sense- 
less brutes  for  kings,  for  the  sake  of  a  name,  a 
dynasty,  a  throne?" 

There  will  be  a  smash  up  politically  in  all  di- 
rections. Cabinets  will  fall,  kings  and  rulers 
will  be  set  aside.  The  people  will  seize  the 
powers  of  government;  but  they  will  soon  dis- 
cover that  democracy  left  to  itself  is  no  better 
than  brittle,  breakable  clay,  incapable  of  cohe- 
sion, without  inhering  strength,  susceptible  of 
being  massed,  but  not  unified,  massed  and  com- 
pacted and  held  together  only  by  a  weight  and 
pressure  exterior  to  itself ;  for  the  immense  truth 
is,  the  strength  of  democracy  is  its  weakness.  Its 
strength  is  individualism,  the  protest  of  personal- 
ism  against  the  limitation  of  personalism;  but 
the  moment  one  or  more  individuals  begin  to 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  565 

combine  to  secure  increased  strength  in  govern- 
mental administration  then  individualism  re- 
volts against  the  combination  as  a  menace  to 
personalism,  a  limitation  of  its  freedom.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  therefore,  there  must  always 
be  an  inner  spirit  of  revolt  in  democracy;  al- 
ways democracy  must  be  on  the  point  of  giving 
birth  to  a  revolution.  Revolution  is  and  must  be 
the  chronic  outcome  of  democracy.  There  can 
be  no  finality,  no  fixity  in  personalism.  It  must 
always  be  developing,  "progressing/'  seeking 
wider  freedom  for  itself.  Necessarily  therefore, 
there  can  be  no  final  fixity  or  form  in  essential 
democracy,  it  must  be  always  on  the  threshold  of 
change,  of  overthrow  of  existing  things. 

But  back  of  every  other  element  in  human  na- 
ture is  the  law  of  self  defence.  Sooner  or  later 
this  law  operates  in  democracy  and  in  propor- 
tion as  there  is  suffering  from  the  anarchial  tend- 
ency inherent  in  it,  there  is  an  instinctive,  in- 
voluntary outreach  and  swing  over  to  centrality, 
the  demand  for  a  strong  hand  to  control.  The 
self  interest  of  personalism  produces  this  final 
demand  for  concentrated  power  to  save  it  from 


566  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

atomic  attrition,  the  lawless  independence  of  one 
personalism  with  another. 

Such  a  condition  of  things  will  cause  the  re- 
volting people  to  seek  for  "iron"  men,  with 
*'iron"  hands  who  can  rally  the  elements  of  law 
and  order  and  under  the  pressure  of  external 
power  bring  in  the  cohesion  required  for  secur- 
ity. The  people  therefore  will  elect  for  them- 
selves, soldiers,  conquerors,  men  who  can  control 
the  mob. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  surge  and  resurge  and 
the  constant  changing  of  the  map  ten  democratic 
kingdoms  will  be  erected  within  the  territory 
once  occupied  by  the  Western  and  Eastern  Em- 
pire of  Rome,  the  territory  once  covered  succes- 
sively by  Babylon,  Me  do- Persia,  Greece  and 
Rome. 

Four  of  these  kings  or  kingdoms  we  know. 
They  will  be  the  four  into  which  the  empire  of 
Alexander  was  divided  and  which  Scripture  as- 
sures us  will  be  revived  in  the  closing  hours  of 
this  age.  These  four  are  the  kingdoms  of  Selu- 
cis,  which  included  Syria,  all  east  of  the  Taurus 
mountains,  Babylon  and  Persia;  the  kingdom  of 
Ptolemy  which  took  in  Egypt;  the  kingdom  of 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  567 

Cassander,  that  is,  Greece  and  Macedonia;  and 
the  kingdom  of  Lysimachus,  covering  Rou- 
mania,  all  the  country  to  Constantinople  and  east 
to  the  Taurus.  Egypt  and  Greece  have  already 
been  revived,  and  whatever  the  course  of  the 
present  war,  and  in  spite  of  the  senseless,  dila- 
tory and  fumbling  tactics  of  the  Allies,  Greece 
will  yet  have  Macedonia.  The  war  in  the  Bal- 
kans is  preparatory  to  the  setting  up  once  more 
but  in  more  westward  detail  the  kingdom  of 
Lysimachus.  The  onrush  to  Bagdad  and  the 
East  will  again  put  Babylon  and  the  Euphratean 
valley  on  the  map  for  daily  study. 

Then  will  arise  the  Devil's  man,  the  man 
whom  God  has  ordained  shall  be  the  Devil's 
long  sought  for  incarnation  and  through  whom 
he  will  make  his  final  and  desperate  effort  to 
capture  and  rule  the  world  for  himself. 

This  man  will  be  thrown  up  by  the  red  waves 
of  war. 

He  will  come  out  of  the  East  as  a  soldier  of 
reputation,  a  conqueror.  He  will  sweep  every- 
thing before  him.  His  course  will  be  westward. 
He  will  be  hailed  with  enthusiasm  as  the  only 


568  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

man  who  can  lay  hold  of  the  troublous  and  tur- 
bulent times  and  bring  order  out  of  chaos.  The 
kings  in  convocation  will  elect  him  as  their  head 
and  superior.  He  will  take  the  title,  "Prince  of 
Rome/'  and  thus  the  old  Roman  Empire,  the 
fourth  great  w^orld  power,  will  be  revived  under 
its  last  form  as  a  tenfold  kingdom^  a  confedera- 
tion of  kings  over  which  this  prince  shall  rule 
king  of  kings  and  lord  of  lords. 

Already  the  promise  ol  these  things  is  In  the 
air. 

The  present  Kaiser  of  Germany  has  said 
should  he  win  he  will  restore  the  old  Teutonic, 
Roman  Empire  with  such  glory  as  It  never 
dreamed  in  its  most  resplendent  days.  With  his 
sword  he  has  said  he  will  hew  his  way  to  Baby- 
lon, and  from  Hamburg  to  the  Persian  Gulf, 
from  the  English  channel  to  the  Dardanelles  he 
will  rule  with  the  sceptre  and  the  cross  of  iron. 

This  prince  who  is  to  come  will  triumph  over 
all  who  set  themselves  in  array  against  him,  till 
on  every  lip  shall  be  the  cry: 

"Who  can  make  war  with  him?" 

Having  overcome  all  enemies  he  will  seek  to 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION.  569 

establish  peace.  He  aims  to  be  known  as  the 
^Trince  of  Peace." 

He  will  enter  into  league  with  the  Pope  and 
make  the  Roman  Church  a  church  of  state. 

In  order  to  secure  his  eastern  possessions  and 
defend  Babylon;  (Babylon  will  again  be  built. 
It  is  as  the  ruler  and  king  of  revived  Babylon  he 
will  enter  on  his  role  as  conqueror  and  march  to 
the  West)  ;  in  order  to  secure  the  East  from 
Russia  and  the  confederacy  of  Asiatic  nations  of 
which  she  will  be  the  center  and  to  form  a  bar- 
rier against  the  combined  movement  of  Germany 
and  Russia  to  Constantinople  and  Palestine,  he 
will  set  up  the  Jewish  state.  By  means  of  the 
navy  one  of  the  western  kingdoms  he  will  en- 
able the  Jews  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth 
to  return  to  their  own  land.  With  the  head  of 
the  Jewish  state  he  will  make  a  treaty  of  seven 
years.  The  Jews  will  hail  him  as  a  political 
Messiah;^  and  since  he  will  be  a  Jew  many  will 
be  ready  to  receive  him  as  actual  Messiah.  Hav- 
ing rejected  the  true  Messiah  when  He  came  in 
His  Father's  name  they  yvill  accept  the  false 
Messiah  when  he  comes  in  his  own  name.    He 


3  7' 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 


will  rebuild  their  temple  and  accord  to  them 
their  ancient  rites  and  ceremonies. 

For  three  years  and  a  half  a  deceived  world 
will  be  lulled  with  the  dream  of  peace. 

At  the  end  of  that  time  the  prince  will  turn 
like  a  madman  upon  the  Church  in  Rome  and 
in  concert  with  his  kings  overthrow  it  and  hurl 
it  from  its  place  of  privilege  and  power.  With 
increasing  madness  he  will  turn  upon  the  Jews, 
break  his  treaty  with  them  and  rage  against  them 
with  a  wickedness,  a  terror  and  brutality  of  per- 
secution such  as  they  have  never  known  in  all 
the  anguish  of  their  history. 

It  will  be  the  hour  of  the  Great  Tribulation. 

For  the  sake  of  the  elect  among  the  Jews  the 
Lord  God  will  now  send  hardening  judgments 
on  this  wild  beast,  king  and  kaiser,  even  as  He 
did  for  the  sake  of  Israel  upon  Pharaoh  and 
Egypt. 

He  will  rain  upon  the  nations  hail  and  horri- 
ble tempest.  From  the  eighth  chapter  of  the 
Revelation  to  the  nineteenth  you  have  a  record 
and  picture  of  those  judgments  in  which  every 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  57 1 

word  that  records  them  seems  to  be  written  in 
brimstone  and  sulphur. 

Those  of  you  who  were  in  the  northwest  some 
years  ago  can  remember  how  because  of  the 
drouth  and  the  all  enveloping  heat,  fire  leaped 
out  of  the  very  air  to  consume  everything  before 
it.  The  very  trees  became  so  dry  the  moisture 
was  so  completely  evaporated  that  in  rubbing 
their  branches  together  they  emitted  sparks  that 
ignited  the  wilted  and  crisp  leaves  till  whole 
forests  were  ablaze,  each  several  tree  like  a  hid- 
eous burning  torch,  or  in  the  deep  darkness  of 
the  night  like  an  upright  serpent  flinging  forth 
its  forked  tongue. 

The  grass  and  the  harvest  wall  be  burned  up. 

The  waters  will  be  turned  to  the  appearance 
of  blood.  The  springs  and  fountains  and  rivers 
of  water  will  become  bitter  as  wormwood  and 
gall.    All  living  things  will  die  therein. 

The  sun  .and  moon  and  stars  will  fail  to  give 
their  full  and  perfect  light.  The  stars  shall  fall 
as  when  a  tree  casts  its  untimely  fruit.  The  un- 
bolted heavens  shall  be  torn  apart.  The  foun- 
tains of  the  deep  shall  be  broken  up.     Tidal 


572  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

waves  shall  drown  the  land.  Earthquakes  shall 
rive  the  solid  ground.  Volcanoes  shall  vomit 
forth  their  fiery  streams.  Hail  stones  weighing 
hundreds  of  pounds  shall  fall  until  it  would  seem 
as  though  giants  of  wrath  stationed  on  the  bor- 
ders of  heaven  were  storming  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth  to  send  them  bruised  and  mangled  to 
their  painful  death. 

There  will  be  an  invasion  of  lost  spirits. 

There  was  a  time  when  men  believed  in  spir- 
its, in  sprites,  in  denizens  of  an  unseen  world. 
Then  men  (as  they  thought)  grew  wiser.  They 
believed  henceforth  only  in  what  they  could  see 
or  feel,  in  nothing  beyond  the  length  of  their 
eyelashes  or  the  tips  of  their  fingers.  To-day 
there  is  a  revirement,  a  coming  back.  Men  now 
talk  of  the  sub-conscious  mind,  of  telepathy, 
hypnotism,  levitation  and  spiritism,  communi- 
cation with  the  dead.  One  of  the  leading  scien- 
tists of  the  world  has  published  a  book  being 
read  by  thousands  in  which,  seriously,  he  details 
his  communications  with  the  dead.  The  follow- 
ers of  spiritism  are  to  be  numbered  by  millions 
and  there  are  representative  thinkers  and  stu- 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  573 

dents,  men  of  large  attainment  and  scholarship, 
who  do  not  hesitate  to  believe  in  demons,  in  dis- 
embodied souls  seeking  in  this,  our  day,  to  inter- 
penetrate and  possess  the  bodies  of  the  living. 

Of  all  the  anguish  in  the  universe  nothing  is 
so  great  as  the  anguish  of  disembodiment.  The 
Christian  soul  does  not  suffer  in  disembodiment 
because  that  soul  both  by  regeneration  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  linked  up  to  the  body  of  a  risen 
Christ,  and  Christ  for  the  time  being  is  the  hous- 
ing of  that  soul  in  heaven ;  but  to  the  soul  out  of 
Christ,  it  is  unspeakable  agony. 

The  proof  of  this  is  to  be  seen  in  the  interview 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  the  demon-pos- 
sessed man  of  Gadara.  The  man  cried  out,  "I 
beseech  thee,  torment  me  not." 

Luke,  who  gives  the  account,  says  this  appeal 
was  made  because  the  Lord  ^'had  commanded  the 
unclean  spirit  to  come  out  of  the  man."  It  was 
a  protest  o^f  the  demon  against  disembodiment. 
This  is  further  proved  when  the  Lord  asks  the 
man  his  name.  He  answers,  "legion/'  because 
many  demons  "were  entered  into  him."  As  soon 
as  the  command  was  insisted  upon  the  demons 


574  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

besought  that  they  might  not  be  sent  into  the 
deep.  The  word  used  for  ''deep,"  signifies,  not 
the  waters  of  the  lake  (immaterial  spirits  could 
not  be  afraid  of  drowning)  but  hades,  the  unseen 
abode  of  disembodied,  unrighteous  souls.  They 
cried  out  against  going  back  to  the  abode  of  the 
disembodied.  They  plead  for  embodiment. 
They  asked  the  Lord  to  let  them  go  into  the 
bodies  of  the  swine  feeding  by  the  lake.  Em- 
bodiment in  beasts  was  better  than  being  a  naked 
soul.  To  the  Christless  soul  disembodiment  is 
hell.  The  one  aim  of  such  a  soul  is  to  get  em- 
bodiment. This  is  proved  and  demonstrated  in 
the  story  related  by  Matthew,  of  the  unclean 
spirit  that  went  out  of  a  man,  went  back  to  the 
underworld,  walked  through  it,  could  find  no 
rest,  then  took  seven  other  spirits  more  wicked 
than  himself  and  returning  with  them,  entered 
again  into  the  man. 

Disembodiment  is  torment,  embodiment  the 
yearning  desire  of  the  lost. 

The  Lord  will  permit  the  doors  of  the  unseen 
abode  to  be  flung  wide  open,  and  these  lost  spir- 
its will  come  forth  in  monstrous  hordes  to  pos- 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  575 

sess  and  torment  the  bodies  of  men.  Men  shall 
seek  for  death,  but  will  not  be  able  to  find  it. 
For  a  season  God  will  surrender  the  world  to 
these  lost  spirits. 

It  will  be  a  time  of  terror  and  anguish. 

Everywhere  there  shall  be  heart  failure,  men's 
hearts  failing  them  for  fear,  for  looking  after 
the  things  that  are  coming  on  the  earth. 

But  as  in  the  days  of  Pharaoh  instead  of  soft- 
ening, the  plagues  and  judgments  will  only  serve 
to  harden  the  hearts  of  men.  Wickedness  will 
increase,  murder,  fornication,  robberies,  thefts, 
conspiracies  of  sin,  of  shame,  of  unbridled  in- 
iquity will  fill  the  earth. 

The  Devil's  man  shall  be  completely  possessed 
by  him  and  do  according  to  his  Satanic  will. 

Then  will  be  reached  the  blasphemous 
climax. 

This  Devil's  man  at  the  head  of  a  chosen  army 
will  march  to  the  East,  to  meet  another  army 
threatening  him  from  the  Euphrates:  kings  and 
armies  from  the  ''sunrise"  land,  "sunrise"  kings 
and  their  people.  He  will  halt  and  form  his 
army  at  the  plain  of  Esdraelon  or  Harmageddon. 


57^  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

Here  he  will  be  reinforced;  for  Harmageddon 
is  the  "gathering"  place  of  his  final  strength. 
From  Harmageddon  he  will  turn  more  south- 
ward and  march  swiftly  upon  Jerusalem,  be- 
siege it,  take  it,  put  it  through  all  the  horrors  of 
a  city  given  up  to  lawless  soldiery.  He  v/ill  set 
up  his  image  as  Roman  emperor.  He  will  seat 
himself  in  the  temple  and  demand  the  tribute 
and  payment  of  divine  honors. 

He  will  proclaim  himself  as  very  God. 

His  prime  minister,  an  incarnate  demon,  a 
master  of  occult  science,  a  very  wizard  with  nat- 
ural and  supernatural  forces  will  cause  fire  to 
come  down  from  the  heavens  at  his  command. 
He  will  make  the  image  of  the  emperor  to  speak 
as  with  the  breath  of  a  living  man.  All  who  re- 
fuse to  do  homage  to  the  image  shall  be  put  to 
death.  It  will  be  a  time  of  woe  and  suffering  no 
tongue  nor  pen  can  describe.  No  one  shall  dare 
to  buy  or  sell  unless  he  is  wearing  on  his  fore- 
head or  his  right  hand,  the  mark  or  stamp  of 
the  Devil's  man. 

Such  lying  signs  and  wonders  will  this  pri- 
mate of  the  king  perform,  and  so  completely 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  577 

will  he  proclaim  these  miracles  as  due  to  the 
power  of  the  king,  so  insistently  will  he  exalt 
him  as  God  of  gods  and  show  him  forth  as  such, 
that  the  very  elect  are  in  peril  of  being  deceived. 

It  is  the  hour  when  the  Devil  will  seem  to 
have  triumphed ;  when  all  the  world  is  at  last 
at  his  feet;  when  he  reigns  supreme  and  with- 
out dispute. 

It  is  the  hour  for  which  he  has  longed  and 
wrought. 

Such  are  some  of  the  characteristics  of, the 
Great  Tribulation  coming  on  the  earth. 

///.  The  Dramatic  Ending  of  the  Great 
Tribulation. 

It  will  end  by  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  glory. 

He  will  come  with  ten  thousand  times  ten 
thousands  of  His  saints. 

Again  and  again  I  have  described  that  Com- 
ing. 

T  have  no  more  vocabulary. 

I  have  exhausted  speech. 

He  will  come  to  the  Mount  of  Olives. 


578  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

It  is  impossible  not  to  recall  that  last  night 
when  Fie  went  into  the  garden  there. 

He  had  come  out  from  the  Paschal  Supper. 

With  His  heavy-hearted  disciples  He  went 
through  the  streets  of  the  almost  deserted  city, 
crossed  the  brook  Kedron  and  went  up  the  slopes 
of  the  Mount  to  the  garden  entrance.  He  bade 
Peter  and  James  and  John  remain  at  the  gate 
and  watch  while  He  went  farther  in  amid  the 
leafy  solitude  to  pray.  The  moonlight  fell  in 
silently  soft  and  silver  waves  amid  the  shadows 
and  broke  like  shafts  of  splintered  light  against 
the  trunks  of  gnarled  and  century-old  trees.  The 
silence  was  broken  only  by  the  voice  of  His 
prayer  and  the  distant  murmur  of  the  brook  as 
it  babbled  on  its  tortuous  and  rocky  way  to  the 
solemn  and  prophetic  vale  below. 

Out  of  the  night  and  the  silence  comes  His 
pleading  prayer: 

"Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass 
from  me!  Nevertheless,  not  as  I  will,  but  as 
thou  wilt." 

Think  of  His  agony! 

Think  of  His  cup! 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  579 

Think  of  what  He  saw  in  that  cup !  A  world's 
sin,  a  world's  iniquities.  The  hiding  of  the  Fa- 
ther's face,  Himself  made  sin,  treated  and  pun- 
ished as  sin,  as  the  criminal  of  the  universe. 
The  enduring  of  God's  wrath  in  your  place  and 
mine.     Think  of  it! 

Why  try  to  think  of  it?  You  cannot  imagine 
it.  You  cannot  picture  it.  It  meant  hell  as  only 
those  will  know  and  experience  it  who  refuse 
to  own  Him  now. 

He  shrank  from  it.  His  soul's  purity  and  hol- 
iness revolted  at  the  stain  and  horror  of  it.  The 
horror  even  of  imputed  sin. 

He  had  a  right  to  refuse  to  drink  this  cup. 

He  had  right  to  refuse  if  He  considered  only 
Himself,  only  His  own  will. 

Had  He  considered  Himself  and  exercised 
His  own  will,  He  would  have  failed  the  Father, 
He  would  have  failed  you  and  me. 

Then,  alas,  we  would  have  known  by  actual 
experience  what  was  in  that  cup. 

But  He  did  not  come  to  do  His  own  will. 

That  rails  Him  off  from  all  others, 


58o  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

That  proves  His  humanity  to  be  of  different 
stuff  from  ours. 

That  demonstrates  His  being  and  nature  to 
be  more  than  human. 

He  comes  to  do  the  will  of  God  the  Father. 

That  prov  :s  Him  and  the  Father  to  be  of  one 
mind. 

It  proves  Him  to  be  the  Son  of  God  and  God 
the  Son,  the  world's  divine  and  consecrated  Re- 
deemer. 

It  was  a  night  of  nights,  that  last  night  on 
Olivet. 

But  it  will  not  be  night  on  Olivet  when  He 
comes  again. 

All  the  suns  and  systems  like  flaming  glories 
will  flash  their  concentrated  splendor  before 
Flim  and  pale  and  fade  away  in  the  effulgence 
of  His  own  unrestricted  majesty.  The  moment 
His  feet  touch  the  mount  it  will  split  in  twain 
and  roll  a  wide  uplifted  plain  for  the  feet  of 
His  saints. 

Then  will  Fie  take  this  false  king  and  his  false 
prophet  and  bid  them  be  cast  Into  the  valley  of 
Hinnom.     It  will  open  like  a  gulf  and  into  the 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  581 

upleaping  fire  they  will  be  cast  alive.  Trius  will 
end  the  Great  Tribulation.  As  it  ends  the  Lord 
as  King  of  kings,  as  Potentate  Supreme  shall 
stand  upon  the  threshold  of  that  glorious  king- 
dom unrolling  a  thousand  golden  years. 

IV.    The  Beginning  of  the  Great  Tribulation, 

The  beginning,  not  of  the  actual  Tribulation 
itself,  but  of  the  epoch  in  which  it  runs  its  course 
has  three  distinct  steps. 

/.  The  Holy  Ghost  will  be  taken  out  of  the 
world  as  the  convicting  and  restraining  power 
of  evil. 

For  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  during  the 
ministry  of  Noah  the  Spirit  strove  with  men 
and  held  back  the  evil  of  the  world.  For  two 
thousand  years  during  this  age  of  grace  the 
spirit  has  been  striving  to  lead  men  to  faith  in 
the  Son  of  God,  seeking  to  convict  them  of  the 
sin  of  unbelief  and  using  His  infinite  power  to 
hold  back  and  restrain  iniquity. 

The  only  thing  that  keeps  New  York  to  night 
from  utter  riot  and  brutal  lawlessness  is  the 
presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  not  only  as  an  in- 
dwelling presence  in  the  true  Church  of  Christ, 


58^  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION. 

but  as  the  energy  which  resists  and  breaks  the 
conabination  of  evil  forces,  expanded  evil  sug- 
gestions and  evil  men. 

The  Holy  Spirit  will  be  taken  away. 

That  is  to  say,  He  will  personally  depart  as 
an  official  and  restraining  power. 

The  world  will  be  given  over  to  the  unhin- 
dered working  of  the  Satanic  spirit. 

But,  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  officially  and  per- 
sonally in  the  regenerated  Church.  He  came  to 
dwell  in  the  Church  corporately  and  individu- 
ally as  a  seal,  sealing  believers  unto  the  day  of 
redemption;  until  the  hour  when  the  dead  in 
Christ  shall  be  raised  and  the  living  changed* 
He  is  committed  to  remain  the  indwelling  and 
guiding  presence  till  the  Lord  comes  into  the 
air  for  the  Church. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case  He  cannot  be  taken 
away  or  separated  from  His  official  and  essen- 
tial relationship  to  the  Church.  Since  He  can- 
not be  separated  from  the  Church,  the  taking 
away  of  the  Spirit  means  the  taking  away,  the 
translation  of  the  Church.  As  the  translation  of 
the  Church  is  at  the  Coming  of  the  Lord,  then  at 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  5^3 

the  Coming  of  the  Lord  for  the  Church  the 
Holy  Spirit  will  be  taken  away. 

That  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  the  restraining  power 
of  evil  is  to  be  taken  out  of  the  world  at  the 
close  of  the  Church  age  is  the  plain  teaching  of 
Holy  Scripture. 

The  Apostle  Paul  says  the  Antichrist  cannot 

be  revealed  till  "he  who  now  hindereth be 

taken  out  of  the  way."  There  is  only  one  power 
can  hinder  and  restrain  Antichrist  who  is  the 
culmination  of  evil,  because  that  power  is  the 
only  one  that  can  restrain  and  hinder  the  devel- 
opment of  evil  which  culminates  in  Antichrist, 
and  that  is  the  Holy  Spirit.  Antichrist  is  the 
beginning  of  the  Tribulation,  the  Tribulation 
cannot  begin  till  the  Church  is  taken  out  of  the 
way.  This  is  the  direct  promise  of  the  risen 
Lord  Himself.  H^e  says  to  the  regenerated 
Church  in  this  time:  "I  also  will  keep  thee  from 
(out  of)  the  hour  of  temptation  (trial,  affliction, 
tribulation),  which  shall  come  upon  all  the 
world,  to  try  them  that  dwell  upon  the  earth." 
As  the  Tribulation  cannot  come  till  Antichrist 
is  revealed  and  the  Church  is  to  be  taken  out  of 


584  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

the  way  of  the  Tribulation,  then  Antichrist 
cannot  be  revealed  till  the  Church  is  taken  out 
of  the  way;  as  the  Church  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
can  not  be  separated  then  Antichrist  cannot  be 
revealed  till  the  Holy  Spirit  is  taken;  and  as 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  alone  restraining  power 
of  evil  which  culminates  in  Antichrist,  then  the 
Holy  Spirit  it  is  of  whom  the  Apostle  speaks 
when  he  says,  "He  who  now  letteth  (hindereth) 
will  let  (hinder)  until  he  be  taken  out  of  the 
way." 

Scripture  therefore  teaches  that  when  the 
Lord  comes  into  the  air  for  His  Church  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  the  restraining  power  of  evil  will  be 
taken  out  of  the  world. 

The  Tribulation  epoch  will  thus  begin  by  the 
secret  and  Sudden  Coming  of  the  Lord  for  His 
Church  and  the  removal  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

2.  The  Devil's  man,  the  great  and  final 
Kaiser  will  make  a  covenant  with  the  Jews  in 
Palestine  for  seven  years. 

Daniel  tells  us  the  "Prince  that  shall  come" 
will  "confirm  a  covenant  with  many  for  one 
week."    The  word  "week"  here  used  is  the  He- 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  585 

brew  for  a  period  of  seven.  The  context  shows 
the  period  to  be  one  of  years.  The  week  means 
a  period  of  seven  years. 

As  already  stated  the  Jews  will  receive  this 
"prince"  as  their  political  Messiah;  others,  be- 
cause of  his  claims  and  apparent  miracles  as  the 
actual  Messiah. 

It  is  this  action  of  the  Jews  in  relation  to  the 
Prince  that  shall  bring  the  judgments  of  God 
upon  them  nationally;  and  it  is  this  action  of  the 
Prince  as  the  head  of  the  Gentile  nations  that 
shall  bring  the  judgments  of  God  upon  them, 
driving  them  forward  as  agents  to  the  blas- 
phemous climax  of  the  imitation  king  of  kings, 

J.  At  the  end  of  three  years  and  a  half, 
spoken  of  in  Scripture  as  a  'Uime,  times  and  a 
half,"  as  "forty-two  months"  (lunar  months) 
and  as  "twelve  hundred  and  sixty  days,"  the 
King  will  break  his  treaty  with  the  Jews. 

This  will  be  the  actual  beginning  of  the  Trib- 
ulation. 

It  will  last  for  three  years  and  a  half. 

For  three  years  and  a  half  it  will  be  hell  on 
earth. 


586  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

It  will  fulfil  the  solemn  and  prophetic  words 
of  the  Son  of  God. 

"For  then  shall  be  the  tribulation,  the  great 
one,  such  as  was  not  since  the  beginning  of  the 
world  to  this  time,  no,  nor  ever  shall  be." 

The  Coming  of  the  Lord  into  the  air  for  the 
Church  might  be  at  any  moment. 

That  coming  will  be  the  sounding  of  the  *'last 
trump"  of  Corinthians,  and  the  "trump  of  God" 
of  Thessalonians. 

There  is  not  the  thickness  of  the  thin  vapor 
that  rises  above  the  morning  hills  between  us 
and  the  sounding  of  the  trump. 

Any  moment  we  may  be  gone  and  the  prelude 
to  the  Tribulation  begin. 

Because  we  are  thus  always  on  the  threshold 
of  the  Tribulation  I  have  three  things  to  say  to 
you: 

I.  It  is  an  absolute  crime  to  go  out  and  de- 
ceive people  with  the  talk  about  peace;  to  tell 
them  there  ivill  be  no  conflict  between  capital 
and  labor;  that  nation  will  not  war  against 
nation;  that  through  the  preaching  of  the  Gos- 
pel and   the   evolution   of  national  and  social 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  587 

righteousness  peace,  wide,  universal  and  abid- 
ing peace,  is  coming. 

Again  and  again  we  hear  the  familiar  quota- 
tion about  swords  beaten  into  ploughshares  and 
spears  into  pruning  hooks;  but  no  one  seems  to 
realize  that  the  prophet  Joel  tells  us  before  that 
time  can  come  the  ploughshares  must  be  beaten 
into  swords  and  the  pruning  hooks  into  spears. 

In  other  words  war,  war  universal,  war  en- 
gaging and  devastating  all  nations  must  come  be- 
fore peace;  that  the  only  threshold  over  which 
the  nations  can  cross  into  peace  is  war — war, 
bloody,  fearful,  full  of  slaughter  and  anguish. 
Hear  what  the  prophet  says : 

"Proclaim  ye  this  among  the  Gentiles;  pre- 
pare war,  wake  up  the  mighty  men,  let  all  the 
men  of  war  draw  near;   let  them  come  up; 

^^Beat  your  ploughshares  into  swords,  and  your 
pruning  hooks  into  spears." 

Hear  what  Jeremiah  says: 

"The  slain  of  the  Lord  shall  be  at  that  day 
from  one  end  of  the  earth  even  unto  the  other 
end  of  the  earth;    they  shall  not  be  lamented, 


588  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

neither  gathered,  nor  buried ;  they  shall  be  dung 
upon  the  ground." 

Hear  what  the  Son  of  God  says  in  that  last 
address  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives: 

"Ye  shall  hear  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars 

For  nation  shall  rise  against  nation  and 

kingdom  against  kingdom." 

Hear  what  Paul  says : 

"When  they  shall  say,  Peace  and  safety;  then 
sudden  destruction  cometh  upon  them;  as  trav- 
ail upon  a  woman  with  child;  and  they  shall 
not  escape." 

Hear  what  James  says: 

"Go  to  now,  ye  rich  men,  weep  and  howl  for 

your  miseries  that  shall  come  upon  you 

Ye  have  heaped  treasures  together  for  the  last 
days." 

Hear  what  John  says: 

He  says,  in  the  closing  hours  of  this  age, 
wicked  spirits  will  "go  forth  unto  the  kings 
of  the  earth  and  of  the  whole  world,  to  gather 
them  to  the  battle  of  that  great  day  of  God  Al- 
mighty." 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  589 

Hear  again  what  the  Son  of  God  says.  He 
says: 

There  shall  come  Tribulation  such  as  the 
world  never  saw,  distress  with  perplexity  of  na- 
tions, famine  (world-wide  famine),  pestilence, 
earthquake,  the  going  forth  of  false  Christs,  the 
multiplication  of  lawlessness,  the  falling  away 
from  God,  the  utter  apostasy  from  righteousness, 
every  man's  heart  failing  him  for  fear — fear 
everywhere — at  home  and  abroad,  in  the  family 
and  in  the  mart,  in  the  palace  and  the  cot,  in  the 
town  and  in  the  hamlet — fear,  fear  for  looking 
after  the  things  that  are  coming  on  the  earth; 
war,  confusion,  conflict,  Satanic  triumph,  peace 
utterly  taken  f?'om  the  earth. 

Talk  about  peace  in  the  face  of  all  this  warn- 
ing! 

Talk  about  any  legislation,  any  movement,  any 
organized  effort  on  the  part  of  men  to  set  up  a 
peace  whjch  shall  deny  and  make  void  these  sol- 
emn warnings! 

To  so  talk  and  so  preach  is  to  deceive  the  peo- 
ple. 

There  are  three  classes  who  are  talking  about 


590  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

peace:  Men  who  utterly  ignore  the  fact  that  the 
,  basic  force  in  man,  his  capital,  his  asset,  is  self- 
interest,  self  will. 

Take  self-interest  out  of  men  and  you  will 
stop  every  wheel  and  every  machine  in  every 
manufactory  on  Manhattan  island  to-day.  Self- 
interest,  self-consciousness,  the  consciousness  of 
self's  power  and  the  determination  to  put  the 
individual  self  first  and  to  the  front  is  the  in- 
spiration in  man  for  all  his  achievements.  Not 
until  men  are  absolutely  and  universally  regen- 
erated, made  all  over,  filled  and  crowned  with 
the  love  of  God  and  the  unselfishness  of  God's 
Christ,  made  into  a  new  and  distinct  race,  can 
the  law  of  self  and  self's  interest  be  set  aside. 
And  till  it  is,  the  antagonistic  interests,  the  com- 
plex and  contradictory  plans,  man  with  and 
against  man  will  produce  warring  forces  and 
always  increasing  conflict. 

Another  class  who  talk  about  the  steady  evolu- 
tion and  progress  toward  peace  are  those  who 
are  ignorant  of  God's  mind  and  will.  Because 
of  their  total  ignorance  they  cannot  come  into 
court,  their  testimony  is  of  no  avail.    It  is  waste 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  59 1 

of  time,  even,  to  listen  to  their  propositions  and 
amiable  chatterings  about  peace. 

The  third  class  are  men  who  stand  in  the  pul- 
pit and  with  an  open  Bible  before  them  and 
statements  as  plain  as  the  shining  of  Jupiter  or 
Mars  on  a  clear  night, — statements  that  foretell 
war  and  sorrow  and  tribulation;  statements 
which  picture  a  world  filled  with  anguish  and 
torment  and  tragedy, — these  men  dare  to  stand 
up  and  talk  about  peace,  about  the  purple  and 
the  gold  of  millennial  days  just  at  hand;  who 
cry  "peace,"  "peace,"  when  there  is  no  peace. 

Hear  I  pray  you  what  the  Word  of  God  says 
about  those  who  in  this  hour  and  in  face  of  this 
warning  talk  about  peace;  who  seek  to  lull  the 
world  to  sleep  on  the  threshold  of  the  coming 
conflict. 

"The  ambassadors  of  peace  shall  weep  bit- 
terly  

"Saying  peace,  when  there  is  no  peace 

"Destruction  cometh,  and  they  shall  seek 
peace,  and  there  shall  be  none " 

"They  have  deceived  my  people,  saying  peace 
when  there  was  no  peace " 


592  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

"The  prophets  which  see  visions  of  peace,  and 
there  is  no  peace,  saith  the  Lord." 

It  is  because  of  this  talk  about  peace,  this  re- 
pudiation of  the  warning  of  God  that  Scripture 
tells  us  the  Tribulation  and  sorrow  will  come 
like  a  snare  upon  all  those  who  dwell  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth.  It  will  come  upon  them  un- 
awares and  they  will  be  as  those  taken  in  a  gin 
and  trap. 

I  warn  you  that  dire  and  terrible  times  are 
coming  on  the  world;  and  that  there  can  be  no 
real,  no  abiding  peace  upon  this  sin-cursed  earth 
till  the  Prince  of  Peace  Himself  shall  come ;  till 
He  who  is  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  shall 
come  to  put  down  all  authority,  all  principali- 
ties and  powers,  all  unrighteousness  and  evil, 
bind  the  Devil  beneath  His  feet  and  reign  and 
rule  with  a  rod  of  iron,  dashing  in  pieces  as  a 
potter's  vessel  all  opposition,  all  who  rebel 
against  God  and  His  way.  He  will  establish  a 
peace  based  on  righteousness,  the  only  founda- 
tion on  which  it  can  abide. 

2.     It  is  time  for  those  of  you  who  profess  to 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  593 

he  Christians  to  make  your  calling  and  election 
sure. 

There  are  two  classes  of  professors  in  the 
Church. 

Those  who  profess  the  name  of  Christ  and 
possess  His  life  and  nature;  those  who  every 
day  in  one  way  or  another  manifest  the  truth  and 
reality  of  this  relationship. 

There  are  those  who  profess  the  name  of 
Christ  but  give  no  evidence  of  possessing  the 
life  of  Christ. 

To  which  of  these  classes  do  you  as  a  profes- 
sed Christian  belong? 

What  is  your  estate? 

Are  you  indifferent  to  the  House  of  God? 

Have  you  no  joy  in  prayer? 

Do  you  scarcely  ever  read  the  Word  of  God, 
never  search  it  and  find  little  in  it  for  profit,  or 
peace  or  pleasure? 

Do  you  prefer  worldly  things,  worldly  ways 
and  companionship  to  the  things  of  God  and  the 
companionship  of  godly  people? 

If  these  are  your  experimental  characteristics 
and  you  still  claim  the  name  and  make  the  open 


594  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

profession  of  Christ,  still  allow  your  name  to  re- 
main upon  the  Church  book,  then  I  call  upon 
you  to  awake,  arouse  and  find  out  whether  you 
are  deceiving  yourself  and  your  fellow  man. 
Awake,  arouse,  I  bid  you;  for,  should  the  Son 
of  God  come  before  the  morning  you  would  have 
no  time  to  get  your  scattered  baggage  together. 

Your  name  is  on  the  Church  book! 

Is  it  in  the  book  of  life? 

What  a  horror  of  horrors  if,  after  having  pro- 
fessed the  name  of  Christ  He  should  come  and 
you  be  left,  outside  the  door. 

O  the  a^ony  of  that  moment  when  in  spite  of 
all  your  crying  and  beseeching  appeal  you  should 
hear  Him  say: 

"Depart  from  me,  I  never  knew  you." 

Now  is  the  time  to  make  your  calling  and 
election  sure. 

You  cannot  elect  yourself;  but  you  can  find 
out,  and  that  very  quickly,  whether  you  have 
been  elected ;  whether  the  root  of  the  matter  is 
in  you;  whether  deep  down  in  your  heart  you 
are  sorry  for  all  your  carelessness  and  lack  of 
consistent  Christian  living;   whether  really  you 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  595 

wish  to  own  and  serve  Him.  You  have  no  time 
to  lose,  and  you  ought  not  to  let  this  night  pass 
into  the  morning  until  you  have  found  out  and 
settled  for  yourself.  If  you  really  would  get 
close  to  Him  and  enter  into  fellowship  and  com- 
munion, clutch  that  desire  and  do  not  let  it  go 
till  your  face  is  turned  to  Him  and  hands  out- 
stretched. 

Do  this  and  He  will  touch  you  with  His  power 
even  here  and  now. 

Do  not  delay,  you  must  arouse. 

J.  The  only  place  of  security  is  in  the  Church 
of  Christ. 

Listen!  Do  not  make  a  mistake.  I  am  not 
speaking  of  the  mere  outward,  professing 
Church,  but  the  true,  the  genuine,  spiritual 
Church  of  Christ. 

The  only  way  into  this  Church  is  by  regener- 
ation. 

The  only  way  of  regeneration  is  through  sin- 
cere and  honest  faith  in  Christ,  the  faith  which 
claims  Him  as  personal  sacrifice,  substitute,  re- 
deemer, Lord  and  Master.     He  is  the  way,  the 


59^  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

truth  and  the  life.     He  is  the  only  door.     By 
Him  you  may  enter  in  and  be  saved. 

This  is  the  time  for  decision. 

This  is  the  time  for  taking  sides. 

God  is  separating  the  wheat  from  the  tares, 
and  the  tares  from  the  wheat. 

Some  exceedingly  foolish  and  would  be  teach- 
ers pretend  that  the  gathering  out  of  the  tares 
first  represents  the  destruction  of  the  wicked  be- 
fore Christ  comes  for  His  own,  and  that  there- 
fore the  Church,  the  true  Church,  if  it  does  not 
actually  go  through  the  Tribulation  is  at  least 
greatly  scorched  by  its  fiery  trials.  You  have 
only  to  go  into  the  country  and  you  will  find 
the  farmer  is  not  foolish  enough  to  burn  up  the 
briars,  the  weeds  and  thorns  before  he  has 
reaped  his  wheat  and  gathered  it  into  the  barn. 
He  may  cull  out  the  useless  stufif,  but  he  will  put 
it  aside  in  heaps  and  wait  till  the  harvest  is 
housed  before  he  sends  the  burning  flames  to 
clean  the  refuse  of  the  field. 

This  word  "to  gather  together"  used  by  the 
Lord  in  the  parable  has  in  it  the  idea  of  organiz- 
ing, assembling,  each  after  its  own  kind,  separat- 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  597 

ing  them  till  they  stand  out  in  their  special  and 
distinctive  characters.  The  tares  will  be  assem- 
bled, organized  by  themselves,  and  the  wheat 
will  by  the  very  separation  be  made  distinctive 
in  itself.  The  Children  of  the  Devil  will  more 
and  mote  get  together  and  organize,  the  Chil- 
dren of  God  will  more  and  more  get  together 
and  seek  their  own. 

This  spirit  of  organization  and  separation  is 
going  on  now. 

There  never  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  the 
earth  when  so  much  organization  was  going  on 
as  to-day.  Two  men  can  hardly  meet  that  they 
do  not  say,  "Let  us  get  together;  let  us  form  a 
company,  a  club,  a  corporation,  or  a  society. 

"Organize,  get  together."  That  is  the  watch- 
word. 

Some  churches,  following  the  common  rule, 
have  so  organized,  indeed,  that  as  churches  of 
Christ  they  have  almost  organized  themselves 
out  of  existence. 

But  it  all  has  profound  significance. 

It  means  God  is  calling  on  men  and  women  to 
take  their  places. 


598  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

He  is  calling  on  each  individual  to  take  sides. 

He  says  "He  that  is  not  for  me  is  against  me." 

The  hour  of  decision  is  here. 

The  day  of  compromise  has  gone  by. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  neutrality.  There 
is  nothing  in  it  except  the  profession  and  hypoc- 
risy  of  it. 

You  must  stand  for  something. 

I  have  preached  many  years  in  this  Church. 

I  have  preached  a  long  while  to-night;  but  I 
am  speaking  to  you  from  my  heart  and  because 
the  conviction  and  fulness  of  it  bid  me  speak. 
There  is  only  one  thought  that  impresses  me  at 
this  moment,  you  men  and  women,  this  great 
crowd  of  men  who  are  here  must  either  go 
through  the  gates  of  God  and  have  eternal  fel- 
lowship with  Christ;  or,  you  must  go  through 
the  gates  of  hell  into  eternal  woe.  There  is  no 
more  doubt  about  a  hell  to  come  than  there  is 
doubt  about  a  hell  here.  There  are  men  and 
women  in  New  York  who  to-night  are  living  in 
hell  and  enduring  every  moment  the  torments  of 
the  damned. 

If  you  have  ever  done  anything  wrong  in  the 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  599 

years  gone  by  it  is  more  of  a  hell  to  you  to-night 
than  it  was  then.  You  may  wither  with  age,  your 
body  may  be  outwardly  as  a  shrivelled  mummy, 
but  inside,  in  your  consciousness,  in  every  fold  of 
your  memory,  deeper,  more  terrible,  fresher  than 
ever  is  the  sin  or  failure  of  those  years  gone  by. 
Your  body  will  go,  but  this  memory,  this  con- 
sciousness of  your  sin  or  sins  and  the  sting  and 
agony  of  the  conscience  will  go  on  forever.  The 
most  terrible  words  which  break  on  the  ears  in 
that  hell  whither  the  rich  man  went  are  these 
words  which  come  across  the  bridgeless  gulf: 

"Son — remember^ 

Men,  you  must  meet  God,  and  there  is  only 
one  place  where  you  can  meet  Him  in  security 
and  that  is  underneath  the  blood  of  Christ.  I 
should  feel  myself  a  traitor  to  God  and  man  if 
I  did  not  make  an  effort  to  reach  you  to-night. 
I  want  every  unsaved  man  or  woman  to  become 
a  saved  maji  or  woman.  There  is  no  reason  why 
you  should  not  be  saved  to-night  and  now.  God 
has  done  everything  necessary  to  save  you. 

The  salvation  is  all  provided  in  a  risen  and 
glorified  Saviour. 


6oo  THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION 

The  issue  of  your  salvation  is  ail  summed  up 
in  these  questions : 

"Will  you  believe?"  "Will  you  accept?" 
"Will  you  receive  Jesus  Christ  now?" 

Do  not  say  you  cannot  understand  and  there- 
fore cannot  believe. 

You  cannot  understand,  you  certainly  cannot 
realize  how  a  flame  of  fire  can  leap  five  hundred 
thousand  miles  in  height  from  the  heart  of  the 
sun,  but  on  the  testimony  of  scientist  astrono- 
mers you  believe  it.  You  cannot  fully  under- 
stand how  it  is  when  a  child  at  the  first  uses  its 
right  hand  it  is  the  left  brain  and  not  the  right 
which  becomes  the  instrument  of  thought.  You 
do  not  understand  it  but  you  believe  it  on  testi- 
mony. There  are  a  million  things  you  cannot 
reason  about,  cannot  fully  understand  when  you 
do  reason,  yet  they  are  facts,  they  impress  them- 
selves on  you  as  facts,  you  do  not  make  any  at- 
tempt to  understand  them,  but  you  accept  them. 
If  you  should  refuse  to  believe  or  accept  any- 
thing you  could  not  explain  or  demonstrate  or 
understand  you  would  write  yourself  down  a 
fool  before  you  had  gone  ten  steps  in  a  world 


THE  GREAT  TRIBULATION  60 1 

whose  mode  and  environment  are  both  mystery 
and  fact. 

0  men  and  women,  with  the  shadow  of  eter- 
nity falling  across  you  this  night,  you  must  hear 
me. 

1  tell  you  the  days  are  coming  when  the  door 
of  grace  will  be  shut.  The  day  is  coming,  the 
hour,  the  moment,  when  your  opportunity  will 
be  gone  forever. 

I  want  you  to  hear,  believe  and  be  saved. 

Hear  me  as  I  repeat  the  wondrous  message  of 
God: 

"If  thou  shall  confess  with  thy  MOUTH  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  shall  BELIEVE  IN  THINE 
HEART  that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the 
dead,  thou  shalt  be  sa\)ed." 

I  do  not  ask  you  to  do  things. 

I  do  not  ask  you  to  promise  things;  but,  in 
face  of  the  fact  that  every  beat  of  your  heart  like 
a  "muffled  drum"  is  sounding  your  march  to  the 
parade  ground  of  eternity;  in  face  of  the  fact 
that  the  wisest,  the  best  and  the  most  intellectual 
of  the  earth  are  turning  to  and  bowing  down  be- 
fore this  Christ  of  God;   in  the  face  of,  and  by 


6o2  THE  GR-EAT  TRIBULATION 

the  verification  of  a  Christian  consciousness 
two  thousand  years  in  extent,  universal,  all  per- 
vading; in  face  of  the  indisputable  fact  that  you 
have  no  guaranty  of  an  hour  or  even  a  moment 
this  side  of  eternity,  I  ask  every  man  and  wom- 
an among  you,  all  who  are  willing  and  ready  to 
accept  Jesus  Christ  as  a  personal  and  present 
Saviour;  all  who  will  take  God  at  His  Word 
about  Him ;  all  who  will  step  out  on  the  promise 
of  God  concerning  Him  to  do  it  now;  do  it  for 
the  sake  of  husband,  wife,  child,  friend,  and  loved 
one,  for  the  sake  of  your  own  soul.  O  man,  O 
woman,  young  or  old,  if  you  will  receive  this 
risen  Lord,  this  living  and  only  Saviour,  this 
Coming  King,  then  I  ask  you  to  rise  to  your  feet 
and  by  that  act  say,  "I  hereby  accept  and  confess 
Him." 

Do  that  and  the  woe  and  anguish  of  the  Great 
Tribulation  and  the  endless  judgment  shall  never 
fall  on  you. 


Note. — In  an  audience  which  crowded  the  auditorium  and 
packed  the  galleries,  and  where  men  seemed  to  predominate  in 
number,  scarcely  a  half  dozen  remained  seated.  With  marvelous 
spontaneity  the  people  responded  to  the  invitation  and  ro.se  to 
rheir  feet. 


IX 

THE  FALLING  STONE,  OR  THE  OVERTHROW 
OF  THE  LAST  KAISER 


The  Falling  Stone 

or 

The  Overthrow  of  the  Last  Kaiser. 


My  theme  to-night  is: 

"The  Falling  Stone;  or,  God's  forecast  of 
world  politics  now  being  fulfilled^  the  over- 
throw of  the  Last  Kaiser,  or  Caesar,  and  the  set- 
ting up  of  the  Fifth  and  final  great  world 
power." 

My  text  is  to  be  found  in  the  book  of  Daniel, 
second  chapter,  thirty-fourth,  thirty-fifth  and 
forty-fourth  verses: 

"Thou  sawest  till  that  a  stone  was  cut  out 
without  hands,  which  smote  the  image  upon  his 
feet  that  were  of  iron  and  clay,  and  brake  them 

in   pieces And   the  stone  that  smote  the 

image  became  a  great  mountain,  and  filled  the 

whole  earth And  in  the  days  of  these  kings 

shall  the  God  of  heaven  set  up  a  kingdom  w^hich 
shall  never  be  destroyed." 


6o6  THE  FALLING  STONE 

In  the  previous  sermon  I  spoke  on  the  "Great 
Tribulation."  In  presenting  that  subject  I  gave 
a  general  exposition  of  what  is  popularly  known 
as  "Daniel's  image,"  together  with  corrobora- 
tive testimony  of  the  wild  beasts  Daniel  saw  in 
his  own  visions.  I  shall  go  over  exactly  the  same 
ground  to-night.  I  shall,  however,  give  a  more 
detailed  exposition  of  the  image  and  the  sym- 
bolry  of  the  beasts,  verifying  all  from  history 
till  I  reach  the  prophetic  climax  of  the  fourth 
empire.  I  shall  then  expound  the  mountain  out 
of  which  the  stone  was  cut,  the  stone  itself,  the 
falling  of  the  stone  and  the  setting  up  of  the 
fifth  and  final  kingdom.  From  all  this  I  shall 
draw  the  corollary  that  God's  forecast  of  world 
politics  is  now  being  fulfilled  and  that  these  ful- 
filling events  are  the  daily  demonstrations  that 
this  Bible  is  the  inspired,  inerrant,  infallible 
Word  of  God.  I  shall  close  as  usual  by  an  ap- 
peal to  professed  Christians  and  to  those  of  you 
who  may  be  unsaved. 

Nebuchadnezzar  was  King  of  Babylon.  Bab- 
ylon, as  a  Kingdom,  was  in  the  zenith  of  its 
glory.    It  had  been  built  on  and  out  of  the  ruins 


THE  FALLING  STONE  607 

of  Assyria.  It  was  so  identified  with  it  that 
classic  writers  like  Herodotus  and  Strabo  speak 
often  of  the  Babylonians  as  Assyrians.  The 
kingdom  extended  over  Asia  Minor^  Syria,  Pal- 
estine, Arabia,  Egypt,  part  of  Greece,  the  Af- 
rican littoral  and  Spain,  as  far  as  the  pillars  of 
Hercules. 

The  City  of  Babylon  was  in  the  noontide  of 
its  splendor. 

The  hanging  gardens  swept  up,  terrace  on 
terrace  of  verdant  foliage  and  playing  fountains, 
to  the  palm  fronded  heights.  The  tower  of 
Belus  rose  hundreds  of  feet  higher  than  the  pres- 
ent Tour  Eiffel.  It  was  ascended  by  an  exterior 
spiral  roadway.  At  the  top  was  a  sanctuary  for 
worshippers  and  crowning  it  all,  a  statue  of  the 
god  worth  its  weight  in  millions  of  gold. 

The  walls  of  the  city  were  three  hundred  feet 
in  height,  looking  down  upon  a  trench  half  as 
high,  a  trench  that  could  be  flooded  from  an  ar- 
tificial lake  operated  by  locks  of  modern  con- 
struction. The  walls  were  pierced  by  a  hundred 
brazen  gates.  Behind  each  gate  a  thousand  men 
stood  armed  and  ready  to  spring  forth  at  the 


6o8  THE  FALLING  STONE 

first  sounding  of  alarm.  On  the  top  of  the  walls 
was  an  esplanade  or  boulevard  where  chariots 
three  abreast  could  be  driven  without  incom- 
moding one  another.  Bridges  connected  the  flat 
roofed  houses;  so  that  there  was  an  upper  as 
well  as  lower  city.  In  the  lower  city  the  streets 
crossed  each  other  at  right  angles.  They  were 
paved  and  arcaded.  The  river  Euphrates  ran 
through  the  center  of  the  city  between  marble 
banks  or  quays.  Artistic  bridges  spanned  the 
river,  ferry  boats  glided  back  and  forth,  while 
here  and  there  arched  tunnels  enabled  the  peo- 
ple to  pass  from  side  to  side.  In  the  heart  of 
the  city  was  the  king's  palace — eight  miles 
square. 

The  inhabitants  were  wholly  given  up  to 
pleasure,  to  unbridled  lust  and  drunkenness. 
Here  virtue  had  no  place  and  vice  was  crowned 
with  flowers. 

In  self  satisfied  pride  and  abounding  content, 
Nebuchadnezzar  ruled  over  this  wide  and 
wealth-filled  kingdom. 

One  night.  In  the  depths  of  his  luxurious  sleep 
he  dreamed  a  dream.    When  he  awoke  it  had 


THE  FALLING  STONE  609 

gone  from  him.  Although  he  could  not  recall 
a  single  outline  of  it  the  impression  weighed 
upon  and  terrified  him.  He  summoned  his  wise 
men  and  astrologers.  He  commanded  them  to 
recall  the  dream  and  give  him  the  interpretation. 
They  protested.  No  king  had  ever  made  such  a 
demand.  Let  him  tell  them  the  dream,  they 
would  give  the  interpretation.  Nebuchadnez- 
zar was  filled  with  anger,  with  madness  and  fury 
that  the  absolutism  of  his  will  should  be  ques- 
tioned or  arrested  even  for  a  moment.  He  com- 
manded them  to  be  put  to  death. 

Among  the  Jewish  captives  Nebuchadnezzar 
had  led  in  his  triumphal  train  after  the  siege 
and  taking  of  Jerusalem  were  four  young  men, 
princes  in  Israel,  among  whom  Daniel,  the 
prophet,  was  easily  preeminent.  With  the  three 
others  he  had  been  placed  by  the  king  in  the  col- 
lege of  astrologers  that  they  might  become  versed 
in  the  science,  the  knowledge  and  wisdom  of  the 
Chaldeans.  The  sentence  included  them.  When 
Daniel  heard  of  it  he  went  to  the  Chamberlain 
and  through  him  sought  an  interview  with  the 
king.    It  was  accorded  him.    He  presented  him- 


6lo  THE  FALLING  STONE 

self  before  Nebuchadnezzar.  He  asked  for  a 
respite,  giving  assurance  should  it  be  granted  he 
would  tell  the  dream  and  give  the  interpretation. 
The  petition  was  accorded  him.  Immediately, 
he  called  together  his  companions,  with  them 
held  a  prayer-meeting  and  insistently  besought 
the  living  God  that  He  would  give  the  longed- 
for  revelation.  The  Lord  God  met  his  faith, 
gave  him  both  the  dream  and  the  interpretation. 
He  went  in  to  the  king  and  spread  them  before 
him. 

This  was  the  dream: 

Nebuchadnezzar  saw  a  great  image. 

Its  head  was  of  gold.  Its  breast  and  arms  of 
silver.  The  belly  and  thighs  were  of  brass. 
The  legs  were  iron,  but  the  feet  and  toes,  part  of 
iron  and  part  of  clay. 

There  was  a  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain 
without  hands. 

The  stone  fell  and  smote  the  image  on  the  feet. 
It  broke  the  image  to  pieces.  The  pieces  became 
as  the  chaff  of  the  summer's  threshing  floor 
when  it  is  swept  by  the  fanning  and  separating 
breezes  of  the  western  wind. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  6ii 

The  stone  became  a  great  mountain  and  filled 
the  whole  earth. 

Speaking  by  the  spirit  of  God  Daniel  says: 

"The  dream  is  certain  and  the  interpretation 
sure." 

And  this  is  the  interpretation  as  spoken  to  the 
king: 

"Thou,  O  king,  art  a  king  of  kings:  for  the 
God  of  heaven  hath  given  thee  a  kingdom, 
power,  and  strength  and  glory." 

In  saying  this  Daniel  was  announcing  not  only 
that  the  head  of  gold  symbolized  the  king,  but, 
also,  the  kingdom,  and  that  Babylon  therefore 
was  the  first  in  the  politico-prophetic  series.  At 
the  same  time,  this  direct  gift  of  dominion  and 
power  from  the  hand  of  God  was  His  official 
proclamation  and  authoritative  affirmation  of 
the  "divine  right  of  kings." 

The  commission  to  Nebuchadnezzar  was  the 
transfer  of  world  rulership  to  Gentile  hands. 

It  was  the  end  of  Jewish  time. 

It  was  the  beginning  of  Gentile  time. 

God  had  purposed  to  rule  the  world  govern- 
mentally  through  the  elect  and  chosen  nation  of 


6i2  THE  FALLING  STONE 

Israel.  He  purposed  to  send  His  incarnate  Son 
to  be  their  king  and  through  Him  and  them  to 
administrate  righteousness  and  truth  in  the  earth, 
bringing  benediction  and  blessing  to  every  crea- 
ture. 

The  nation  had  failed,  grievously  and  utterly 
failed. 

They  had  sinned  against  light. 

Ten  tribes  had  deliberately  and  from  political 
motives  gone  into  idolatry. 

God  had  punished  them  by  sending  the  As- 
syrians to  carry  them  into  captivity.  They  still 
exist  in  their  descendants,  but,  for  twenty-five 
centuries  all  identification  has  been  concealed. 
They  are  known  as  "the  ten  lost  tribes." 

The  other  two  tribes  gave  themselves  up  to 
moral  rebellion  against  God  and  ended,  like- 
wise, in  idolatry. 

God  again  smote  with  the  hand  of  judgment. 

He  sent  Nebuchadnezzar  to  besiege  Jerusa- 
lem, overthrow  it  and  bring  the  people  captive 
to  his  golden  city. 

The  hour  in  which  Daniel  was  now  speaking, 
a  captive  and  forced  into  the  role  of  an  astrol- 


THE  FALLING  STONE  613 

oger,  was  proof  of  the  helplessness  of  the  peo- 
ple, the  seal  of  God's  wrath  and  judgment 
against  them  as  a  nation. 

The  transfer  of  national  authority  to  the  Gen- 
tiles was  the  climax  of  the  judgment. 

Jewish  time  had  come  to  an  end. 

Gentile  time  had  begun. 

Jerusalem  was  down. 

Babylon  was  up. 

Jerusalem  was  a  political  cypher. 

Babylon  had  become  the  political  center. 

Babylon  as  the  head  of  gold  had  become  the 
first  depository  of  divinely  granted  world  power 
in  the  hand  of  the  Gentiles. 

The  breast  and  arms  of  silver  symbolize  the 
kingdom  that  should  come  after  Babylon. 

If  you  would  know  that  kingdom  and  know 
it  from  the  pages  of  the  Word  without  going 
into  a  library  or  needing  to  read  history  written 
by  men ;  if  you  wish  to  see  it  in  a  scenic  and  dra- 
matic revelation  from  God,  open  to  the  fifth 
chapter  of  this  arriazing  and  far-seeing  book  of 
Daniel, 


6 14  THE  FALLING  STONE 

The  scene  as  recorded  is  in  the  City  of  Baby- 
Jon. 

The  era  is  the  reign  of  Belshazzar,  grandson 
of  Nebuchadnezzar. 

The  time,  night.  The  particular  location,  the 
banqueting  hall  of  the  king's  palace.  All  that 
the  lavish  wealth  of  a  king's  inexhaustible  treas- 
ury; all  that  the  genius  of  Babylonian  craftsmen 
and  the  skill  of  Babylonian  artists  could  do  had 
been  done  to  make  this  banqueting  hall  a  dream 
of  wonder  and  an  appeal  of  beauty.  The  ceiling 
was  made  to  imitate  the  star-fretted  sky  of  night, 
concealed  lights  flashing  through  gold  and  silver 
centers  as  from  very  stars  themselves.  The  walls 
were  paneled  and  filled  with  frescoed  forms  and 
scenes  that  told  the  license  of  the  hour.  The 
floor  was  a  mosaic  of  marbled  colors.  In  the 
center  were  great  tables  loaded  with  gold  and 
silver  vessels  and  groaning  with  the  profuse  pro- 
visions for  the  feast.  Fountains  tossed  up  and 
down  their  streams  of  crystal  music.  From  hid- 
den openings  in  the  walls  sweet  perfumes  were 
sprayed  upon  the  guests.  Dancing  girls  v^ith" 
tinkling  silver  bells  on  arm  and  ankle,  posturing 


THE  FALLING  STONE  615 

in  lithesome,  thinly  veiled  bodies  filled  the  air 
with  the  tintinabulations  of  their  rhythmic  mov- 
ing feet.  Long  couches  were  drawn  to  the  tables 
that  the  revellers  might  recline  and  eat  and 
drink  at  ease. 

Belshazzar  had  invited  a  thousand  of  his 
lords,  their  wives,  concubines  and  mistresses,  the 
most  dissolute  of  all  women  in  a  city  where  every 
woman  to  be  a  woman  must  be  unchaste  and 
dissolute. 

They  ^ave  themselves  up  to  the  riot  of  pleas- 
ure, to  the  freedom  of  indescribable  debauch. 

In  the  midst  of  the  orgy  in  which  each  was 
bound  in  honor  of  the  god  whose  feast  they  cele- 
brated to  become  beastly  and  wantonly  drunk, 
Belshazzar  bethought  him  of  the  golden  vessels 
taken  by  his  grandfather  from  the  temple  in  Je- 
rusalem. He  commanded  them  to  be  brought. 
They  filled  them  with  wine.  Lifting  them  high 
they  drurik  and  gave  praises  to  the  gods  of  gold, 
of  silver,  of  brass,  of  iron,  of  wood  and  stone. 

Suddenly,  when  the  saturnalia  was  at  its 
worst,  most  sensual,  most  godless  and  blas- 
phemous pitch,   a  hand  without  a  sleeve  was 


6i6  THE  FALLING  STONE 

thrust  forth  and  began  to  write  on  the  plaster  of 
the  wall. 

In  a  moment  the  drunken  crowd  was  hushed 
and  sobered. 

Strange  were  the  characters  the  fingers  so 
swiftly  wrote  and  then  vanished,  leaving  them 
there  to  smite  with  terror  the  frightened,  rolling 
eyes  which  could  not  decipher  them. 

The  king  sent  for  his  wise  men  and  astrol- 
ogers. 

He  offered  wealth  and  rulership  in  the  king- 
dom to  whomsoever  among  them  could  read  and 
make  plain  the  writing. 

None  could  read  it. 

Then  the  queen  suggested  that  Daniel  was  in 
the  city.  He  had  been  an  interpreter  to  the 
king's  grandfather.  Nebuchadnezzar  had  ex- 
alted and  honored  him.  He  had  in  him  the 
spirit  of  the  holy  gods ;  let  them  send  for  him. 

Daniel  was  sought  for,  found  and  brought  in. 

The  king  offered  him  the  bribe  of  wealth,  of 
high  honor  and  rulership  in  the  kingdom. 

Daniel  bade  the  king  keep  his  gifts,  give  his 
bribes  to  another.     He  would  speak  as  an  am- 


THE  FALLING  STONE  617 

bassador  of  God.  He  would  tell  the  truth  with- 
out fear  or  favor. 

He  said: 

''Let  thy  gifts  be  to  thyself,  and  give  thy  re- 
wards to  another;  yet  I  will  read  the  writing 
unto  the  king,  and  make  known  unto  him  the 
interpretation." 

The  words  were: 

"Mene,  Mene,  Tekel,  Upharsin." 

And  this  was  the  interpretation: 

"Mene:  God  hath  numbered  thy  kingdom 
and  finished  it. 

"Tekel:  Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances, 
and  art  found  wanting. 

"Peres:  Thy  Kingdom  is  divided,  and  given 
to  the  Medes  and  Persians." 

Scarcely  had  he  gone  and  the  sounds  of  his 
footsteps  died  away  when  there  was  the  tramp 
of  marching  feet,  the  quick  word  of  command, 
the  flash,  of  gleaming  spears,  the  shouts  of  vic- 
tory and  the  Persians  swept  into  the  hall. 

Belshazzar  was  slain  and  Darius  the  Median, 
under  the  command  of  Cyrus,  took  the  kingdom. 

Thus  Medo-Persia  was  the  second  kingdom, 


6i8  THE  FALLING  STONE 

the  kingdom  therefore  symbolized  by  the  breast 
and  arms  of  silver;  even  as  Daniel  had  foretold: 
"After  thee  (after  the  head  of  gold)  there  shall 
arise  another  kingdom  inferior  to  thee"  (in- 
ferior as  silver  is  to  gold). 

The  third  metal  in  the  image  and  the  third 
portion  of  it,  the  belly  and  thighs  of  brass  rep- 
resented a  third  kingdom,  the  kingdom  which, 
necessarily,  should  come  after  Medo-Persia;  for, 
Daniel  said: 

"And  another  third  kingdom  of  brass." 

To  find  tliis  third  and  brazen  kingdom  I  shall 
ask  you  to  turn  to  the  eighth  chapter  of  this  book 
of  Daniel  and  find  there  the  record  of  a  vision 
given  to  Daniel  himself. 

In  this  vision  he  saw  a  ram  pushing  westward 
and  northward  and  southward.  It  had  two 
horns,  but  one  higher  than  the  other.  Then  a 
he-goat  came  from  the  west.  It  had  a  notable 
horn  between  its  eyes.  It  rushed  upon  the  ram 
where  it  had  taken  its  stand  on  the  banks  of  a 
river,  overthrew  it  and  stamped  on  it.  The  goat 
waxed  exceeding  great;   but  in  the  moment  of 


THE  FALLING  STONE  619 

its  greatness  the  notable  horn  was  broken  and 
in  its  stead  came  up  four  others. 

The  angel  Gabriel  came  to  Daniel  and  gave 
him  the  interpretation  of  the  vision: 

The  ram  with  the  two  horns,  he  said,  repre- 
sented the  kings  of  Media  and  Persia  (that  is  to 
say  the  Medo-Persian  kingdom)  the  rough  goat 
symbolized  Greece,  the  notable  horn  between  its 
eyes  the  first  king.  The  breaking  off  of  the 
notable  horn  was  the  sudden  end  that  should 
come  to  the  first  king.  The  four  horns  coming 
up  in  place  of  it — four  kings  or  kingdoms  that 
then  should  arise  as  a  consequence  of  the 
abrupt  ending  of  the  first  king  of  Greece. 

Let  us  take  up  the  page  of  history  and  read  it 
in  the  light  and  interpretation  of  this  vision. 

The  Persian  Kingdom,  like  the  ram,  pushed 
its  conquering  arms  northward  and  southward 
and  then  westward.  Then  appeared  Alexander 
of  Maccdon.  At  the  head  of  his  Greeks  he 
crossed  over  into  Asia  Minor.  He  swept  on  to 
the  river  Granicus.  The  Persian  host  were 
drawn  up  in  battle  array  on  the  other  side.  Alex- 
ander committed  a  tactical  fault.     He  made  a 


620  THE  FALLING  STONE 

frontal  attack  on  a  superior  enemy  behind  a 
river.  Nevertheless,  with  his  troops  he  plunged 
in.  In  spite  of  the  scythed  chariots  and  the  heavy 
cavalry  of  the  foe  he  out-generalled,  out-flanked, 
and  defeated  him.  He  rushed  on  to  Issus, 
smashed  into  fragments  the  army  of  six  hundred 
thousand  men  Darius  had  opposed  to  him.  A 
year  and  a  half  later  after  having  subjugated 
Syria,  Palestine  and  Egypt  he  marched  against 
the  million  of  men  Darius  had  recruited  from 
more  than  twenty  nations  and  with  the  might 
and  wisdom  and  scintillating  splendor  of  incom- 
parable military  genius  overthrew  the  Persians 
and  brought  to  an  end  the  second  great  Gentile 
world  power.  He  entered  Babylon,  advanced 
to  the  rivers  of  India  and  because  his  troops 
would  go  no  further  returned,  enthroned  him- 
self in  the  licentious  city  and  died  suddenly  as 
the  consequence  of  a  drunken  debauch. 

His  four  great  generals  took  his  kingdom  and 
divided  it  among  themselves. 

I  shall  speak  of  these  kingdoms  presently. 

Since  the  rough  he-goat  overthrowing  the 
ram  is  Greece;   since  the  ram  is  the  symbol  of 


THE  FALLING  STONE  621 

Medo-Persia  and  Medo-Persia  is  the  second 
kingdom,  and  is  represented  in  the  image  by 
silver,  then  Greece  is  the  third  kingdom  and  is 
represented  in  the  image  by  brass — the  metal 
that  comes  after  the  silver. 

Previously  to  the  vision  of  the  ram  and  the 
he-goat  Daniel  had  a  vision  of  four  wild  beasts 
coming  up  out  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

The  record  of  this  vision  is  to  be  found  in  the 
seventh  chapter. 

The  first  beast  was  like  a  lion,  with  the  wings 
of  an  eagle. 

The  second  was  a  bear.  It  had  three  ribs  be- 
tween its  teeth ;  and  a  voice  bade  it  arouse  and 
devour  much  flesh. 

The  third  beast  was  a  leopard.  It  had  four 
wings  of  a  fowl. 

The  fourth  beast  was  a  monster  with  great 
iron  teeth  and  ten  horns. 

The  angel  tells  Daniel  the  fourth  beast  is  the 
fourth  kingdom  or  world  power  on  earth. 

As  this  fourth  beast  is  declared  to  be  the  sym- 
bol of  a  kingdom,  it  follows  that  the  other  three 
are  also  symbols  of  kingdoms. 


62  2  THE  FALLING  STONE 

The  four  wild  beasts  therefore  represent  four 
kingdoms  or  four  world  empires. 

And  I  would  have  you  notice  and  let  it  sink 
deep  in  your  minds  as  the  picture  which  God 
Himself  forewarningly  gives  that  these  are 
Wild  Beasts  and  set  forth  the  character  of  gov- 
ernment in  the  closing  hours  of  this  age;  not 
lamb-like  governments,  NOT  GOVERNMENTS  OF 
PEACE,  but  ivild-beast  governments;  govern- 
ments which,  like  wild  beasts,  will  slay  and  tear 
and  ravage  and  glut  themselves  with  blood  and 
prey. 

Since  the  four  parts  of  the  image,  the  gold, 
the  silver,  the  brass  and  the  iron  represent  four 
great  Gentile  world  powers,  it  is  evident  that  the 
four  wild  beasts  also  representing  four  great 
world  powers  are  the  corroborating  symbols  of 
the  same  kingdoms. 

The  lion  with  eagle's  wings  is  the  first  beast, 
is  the  first  of  the  four  gentile  kingdoms,  coordi- 
nates by  position  the  head  of  gold  in  the  image 
and  is  therefore,  necessarily,  the  symbol  of  the 
kingdom  of  Babylon. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  623 

There  are  thus  three  symbols  of  that  king- 
dom: 

The  golden  head. 

The  lion. 

The  lion  with  eagle's  wings. 

Turn  to  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Isaiah  and 
you  will  find  Babylon  there  described  as  a 
"golden"  city. 

"Thou  shalt  take  up  this  proverb  against  the 
king  of  Babylon,  and  say,  How  hath  the  oppres- 
sor ceased !    The  golden  city  ceased !" 

The  prophet  Jeremiah  writes: 

"Babylon  has  been  a  golden  cup  in  the  Lord's 
hand."     (Jeremiah  51:7.) 

In  the  fourth  chapter  of  his  prophecy  he 
speaks  of  evil  coming  upon  Judah  from  the 
north.  The  "north"  is  characteristically  in 
Scripture  applied  to  Babylon;    as  it  is  written: 

"I  will  bring  upon  Tyrus  Nebuchadrezzar 
(Nebuchadnezzar)  king  of  Babylon,  a  king  of 
kings  fro7n  the  north.'' 

The  "evil"  then  of  which  Jeremiah  warns  is 
the  king  of  Babylon  and  Babylon  as  a  power  of 


624  THE  FALLING  STONE 

evil.  He  speaks  of  this  evil  as  the  ^'Ito?i  that  is 
come  up  from  his  thicket."     (Jeremiah  4:  6,  7.) 

Thus  the  lion  is  a  symbol  of  Babylon. 

The  eagle  is  a  symbol  of  Babylon;  as  it  is 
written: 

"I  raise  up  the  Chaldeans  (the  Babylonians) 
they  shall  fly  as  the  eagle."       (Habakkuk 

1:6,8.) 

If  ever  the  opportunity  shall  come  to  you  to 
visit  the  British  Museum  in  London,  or  the 
Louvre  in  Paris  you  will  see  the  winged  lions  in 
stone  that  once  guarded  the  doors  of  the  palace 
in  Babylon;  and  down  there  by  the  Birs  Nim- 
roud,  in  the  ruins  of  the  golden  city  they  have 
found  a  porcelain  plaque  on  which  Nebuchad- 
nezzar caused  to  be  stamped  the  figure  of  lions. 

Thus  history  affirms  Babylon  to  be  the  first  of 
the  four  Gentile  world  powers. 

The  second  beast  was  a  bear,  and  as  it  symbol- 
izes the  second  kingdom  coordinates  the  second 
part  of  the  image,  the  breast  and  arms  of  silver. 

We  have  seen  this  part  of  the  image  to  be  the 
symbol  of  Medo-Persia,  the  kingdom  which 
comes  after  Babylon. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  625 

Medo-Persia  therefore  has  three  symbols. 

The  silver  breast  and  arms  of  the  statue. 

The  devouring  bear. 

The  ram  with  the  long  and  short  horns  that 
was  overcome  by  the  he  goat. 

Turn  again  to  the  page  of  history. 

You  will  find  the  "Immortal  Guard"  of  Per- 
sia wore  silver  corslets  or  cuirass. 

Read  history  and  you  will  find  the  Medes 
and  Persians  and  specially  the  Medes  were  as 
cruel  and  devouring  in  their  slaughter  as  a  wild 
and  voracious  bear. 

As  you  pursue  your  reading  you  will  learn 
that  the  king  of  Persia  rode  at  the  head  of  his 
army  wearing  a  ram's  head  made  of  gold  and  set 
with  sparkling  jewels:  and  if  to-morrow  you 
could  go  to  Persepolis  you  would  see  sculptured 
on  the  pillars  still  standing  there  the  figure  of 
a  ram's  head,  one  horn  longer  than  the  other. 

Thus  history  affirms  Medo-Persia  to  be  the 
second  prophetic  kingdom. 

The  third  beast  is  a  leopard  with  wings.  It  is 
the  symbol  of  the  third  kingdom.  It  coordi- 
nates the  third  part  of  the  image,  the  belly  and 


626  THE  FALLING  STOXE 

thighs  of  brass.  As  this  third  and  brazen  part 
sets  forth  the  kingdom  that  should  come  after 
the  second  part,  after  the  silver,  after  Medo- 
Persia,  and  in  Daniel's  vision  of  the  ram  and  he 
goat,  Greece  overcomes  Medo-Persia,  then 
Greece  is  the  third  kingdom. 

Greece  has  three  symbols. 

The  brass  or  brazen  part  of  the  image. 

The  winged  leopard. 

The  he  goat. 

When  classic  writers  speak  of  the  Grecian 
army,  they  use  such  words  as  these : 

Chalkachitones  achaioi. 

That  is,  ^'Brazeii  coated  Greeks." 

The  leopard  is  a  small  animal,  but  strong, 
quick  in  aclion  and  exceedingly  swift. 

The  four  wings  give  quadruple  power  and  as 
a  symbol  signify  extraordinary  speed. 

Alexander,  like  Napoleon,  was  small,  and  like 
him,  capable  of  great  endurance.  The  distinc- 
tive feature  of  his  strategy  was  the  swiftness  of 
his  march.  He  so  led  his  army  that  the  para- 
sangs  or  miles  seemed  to  flee  beneath  their  feet. 

But  now  note  the  wonder  of  corroboration. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  627 

When,  according  to  Justin,  Caranus,  the 
founder  or  first  king  of  Macedonia  was  seeking 
with  a  great  company  of  Greeks  a  new  habita- 
tion, the  oracle  they  consulted  bade  them  follow 
a  herd  of  goats.  A  storm  broke  out.  They  saw 
a  herd  of  wild  goats  trying  to  escape  from  the 
windy  tempest.  The  people  followed  them. 
They  were  led  to  the  town  of  Edessa.  The  king 
made  it  his  capital.  He  called  it  Mgx  "the 
goat's  town."  The  people  were  thenceforth 
known  as  ^gaedce,  "the  goat's  people." 

Alexander  of  Macedon  himself  named  his  son 
Mgiis,  the  "son  of  a  goat." 

When  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus  (that  Pyrrhus 
of  whom  Hannibal  is  reported  to  have  said  of  all 
generals  he  was  the  first)  put  on  his  helmet  hav- 
ing goat's  horns  for  a  crest  he  did  more  to  con- 
quer the  Macedonians  than  by  all  his  splendid 
feat  of  arms;  when  they  saw  it  they  broke  forth 
into  wild  acclaim,  recognizing  it  as  the  symbol 
of  their  land. 

But  now,  I  bid  you  take  up  your  map,  look  at 
the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  as  they  roll  be- 
tween Greece  and  Asia  Minor  and  it  will  be 


628  THE  FALLING  SToNE 

seen  the  name  of  the  Grecian  Archipelago  is  the 
Mgean  Sea,  and  that  means  the  Goat  Sea,  the  sea 
of  the  goat. 

Thus  history  testifies  that  Greece  is  the  third 
great  world  power. 

The  fourth  beast  is  a  monster  with  great  iron 
teeth  and  ten  horns. 

The  angel  tells  Daniel  this  is  the  fourth  king- 
dom upon  earth; 

It  corresponds  with  the  fourth  part  of  the  im- 
age. 

The  fourth  part  of  the  image  consists  of  the 
two  legs  of  iron  and  the  ten  toes,  part  of  iron  and 
part  of  clay.  ' 

To  find  the  fourth  kingdom  or  empire  as 
thus  doubly  symbolized  without  going  to  a  ref- 
erence library,  and  to  find  it  in  the  Bible,  turn 
to  the  New  Testament. 

There  we  learn  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  w^as 
born,  not  only  under  the  shining  stars  and  the 
angel  song,  but  under  and  during  the  reign  of 
Augustus  Caesar  emperor  of  Rome;  and  that  he 
was  put  to  death  under  Tiberias  Caesar  of  Rome; 


THE  FALLING  STONE  629 

th2it  Rome  was  the  great  world  power,  the  power 
that  succeeded  Greece. 

The  characteristic  element  of  the  fourth  part 
of  the  statue  is: 

Iron. 

In  the  fourth  beast  the  teeth  are  iron  teeth. 

As  school  boys  and  school  girls  we  read  of  the 
''iron  legions  of  Rome." 

The  fourth  empire,  Rome,  included  all  the 
territory  of  the  three  preceding  kingdoms, 
Greece,  Medo-Persia  and  Babylon. 

For  a  moment,  let  us  go  back  to  the  vision  of 
the  goat,  to  the  four  horns  that  came  up  when 
the  great  and  notable  horn  was  broken. 

These  four  were  Alexander's  generals:  Se- 
leucus,  Ptolemy,  Cassander  and  Lysimachus. 

Seleucus  took  Babylon,  Persia,  Syria  and  Pal- 
estine. 

Ptolemy  had  Kgypt. 

Cassander  received  Greece  and  Macedonia. 

Lysimachus  possessed  the  countries  now  occu- 
pied by  Roumania,  Thrace  and  Asia  Minor  as 
far  as  the  Taurus  Mountains. 


630  THE  FALLING  STONE 

Then  Rome  began  to  expand. 

The  fragments  of  the  Grecian  empire  were 
conquered  one  after  another  and  incorporated. 
The  victorious  eagles  flew  west  and  east.  Under 
Trajan  Rome  ruled  from  the  Scottish  hills,  from 
Britain  and  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  to  the  Eu- 
phrates and  the  Persian  plains;  from  the  Rhine 
and  the  Danubian  Solitudes  to  Africa  and  the 
glittering  sands  of  Sahara,  and  thus  included 
under  her  far-reaching  and  iron  sceptre  the 
world  kingdoms  that  in  turn  had  ruled  before 
her. 

We  go  back  to  the  fourth  part  of  the  statue 
and  find  it  consisting  of  the  two  legs  of  iron,  the 
feet  and  the  ten  toes. 

We  discover,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  fourth 
beast  has  ten  horns  and  that  these  ten  horns  are 
said  by  the  angel  to  be  ten  kings. 

As  the  fourth  beast  coordinates  the  fourth 
part  of  the  image  then  the  ten  toes  are  equiva- 
lent to  the  ten  kings.  This  is  confirmed  by  Dan- 
iel, who  after  speaking  of  the  toes,  refers  to  them 
again  and  uses  the  words  "in  the  days  of  these 
kings." 


THE  FALLING  STONE  6^  i 

These  kings  or  kingdoms  are  to  be  partly 
strong  and  partly  broken. 

The  iron  is  the  element  that  is  strong. 

Clay  is  the  element  that  is  weak. 

Iron  is  the  symbol  of  monarchy. 

Clay  as  I  have  shown  you  in  a  previous  ser- 
mon is  the  symbol  of  the  rule  of  the  people — de- 
mocracy. 

Monarchy  and  democracy  cannot  unite,  or  re- 
main united  in  any  one  form  of  government. 

Such  a  government  must  be  partly  strong  and 
partly  broken. 

The  breaking,  separation  and  fragmentation 
are  found  in  the  clay,  in  the  rule  of  the  people, 
in  democracy. 

There  are  three  things  therefore  to  be  consid- 
ered in  this  fourth  part  of  the  image: 

The  two  legs. 

The  ten  toes. 

The  mixed  condition  of  iron  and  clay. 

The  two  legs  symbolize  the  division  of  the 
fourth,  or  Roman  empire,  into  two  equal  parts. 

The  ten  toes  signify  a  second  and  final  divi- 
sion into  ten  kingdoms. 


632  THE  FALLING  STONE 

The  mixture  of  iron  and  clay  in  the  ten  toes  is 
a  symbolic  prophecy  that  these  ten  kings — (since 
clay  is  the  last  in  order)  will  be  elected  by  the 
•  people  and  will  be  democratic  kings. 

Let  us  turn  to  history. 

A  thousand  years  after  the  prophecy  Rome 
was  divided  into  two  great  halves  under  the 
brothers  Valentinian  and  Valens.  The  Western 
Empire  had  its  capital  at  Rome.  Constantino- 
ple or  Byzantium  became  the  capital  of  the  East- 
ern Empire. 

The  Western  Empire  continued  some  four 
hundred  years  after  Christ  and  then  began  to 
break  up  under  the  incursion  of  Teutonic  hordes 
into  smaller  states. 

The  Eastern  Empire  with  varying  fortunes 
lasted  till  1453,  when  it  was  taken  by  the  Turks. 
The  Turkish  Empire  has  held  it  intact  to  the 
Persian  boundaries  till  within  the  last  few  years 
and  specially  within  the  last  decade.  Like  its 
own  eastern  boundary  river  which  according  to 
prophecy  is  to  be  dried  up,  it  has  dwindled  in 
extent  until  to-day  only  a  relatively  small  por- 
tion of  territory  surrounding  Constantinople  is 


THE  FALLING  STONE  633 

under  the  rule  of  the  crescent  and  the  power  of 
its  scimetar. 

On  Christmas  day,  800,  the  great  basilica  of 
Saint  Peter's  in  Rome,  was  filled  with  a  wor- 
shipping throng. 

Pope  Leo  Third  came  down  from  his  pontifi- 
cal chair  to  the  high  altar  before  which  Charle- 
magne, the  king  of  the  Franks,  was  kneeling, 
and  placing  on  his  head  a  golden  and  splendid 
crown,  saluted  him  and  proclaimed  him — Em- 
peror of  Rome.  Thus  was  the  Western  Empire 
revived  and  through  succeeding  centuries  recog- 
nized as  the  "Holy  Roman  Empire." 

It  attempted  to  influence  and  control  the  East- 
ern Empire.  Through  war,  internal  convulsion 
and  intrigue  it  became  more  Teutonic  than 
Latin,  more  German  than  Roman  and  finally 
degenerated  into  a  heterogeneous  company  of 
petty  German,  or  German-controlled  states. 
Eventually  .the  emperor  of  Austria  under  pres- 
sure took  over  the  title  of  Ca3sar,  Emperor  of 
Rome.  A  double-headed  eagle  became  his  en- 
sign. It  was  the  shadow  of  the  claim  that  as  this 
monster  in  spite  of  two  heads  had  one  body^  so 


634  THE  FALLING  STONE 

Rome  even  though  divided  remained  one  em- 
pire. It  was  the  mystical  affirmation  that  what- 
ever divisions  might  come  in  the  territory  occu- 
pied by  it,  Rome  as  the  fourth  and  final  ordained 
world  power,  would  continue  as  such  till  the 
end  of  Gentile  time. 

This  ensign  is  still  borne  on  the  banners  of 
Austria.  It  is,  also,  the  ensign  of  Russia,  which, 
in  the  intimacy  and  secrecy  of  imperial  plans  and 
councils,  believes  itself  to  be  the  legitimate  heir 
and  rightful  possessor  of  the  one  time  Eastern 
(and  really,  Greek)  Empire;  believes  Constan- 
tinople, or  Byzantium  (and  neither  Petrograd 
nor  Moscow)  to  be  its  genuine  capital  and  the 
true  metropolitan  center  of  the  Greek  Church. 
This  mysterious  ensign  is  now  borne  aloft  and 
thrust  into  the  eyes  of  a  startled  world  as  the 
blazon  of  Germany,  whose  feudal  war  lord  and 
Kaiser  aims  to  be  the  Caesar  of  a  revived  Teu- 
tonic Roman  Empire;  for,  this  word  Czar  in 
Russia,  and  Kaiser  in  Germany  is  the  fatefuK 
old-time  and  abiding  title — Caesar. 

The  Holy  Roman  Empire  degenerated  into 
such  a  political  condition  that  the  satirical  Vol- 


THE  FALLING  STONE  635 

taire  wittily  said  of  it,  that  it  was  "neither  holy, 
nor  Roman,  nor  an  empire." 

Then  Napoleon  arose  and  burst  over  Europe 
like  a  cyclone,  smashed  Austria,  and  made  a 
peace  in  which  emperors  played  second  parts. 
The  emperor  of  Austria  was  forced  to  lay  aside 
his  title  as  Caesar  of  Rome.  Napoleon  set  up 
the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine.  He  unmade 
and  made  kings  at  his  will.  He  took  the  thrones 
of  nations  and  gave  them  to  whom  he  willed. 
He  purposed  to  establish  a  confederation  of 
subordinate  kings  in  which  he  should  occupy 
the  position  of  a  king  of  kings  and  lord  of  lords. 
,  He  called  the  Jewish  Sanhedrin  together  and 
planned  to  set  up  the  Jewish  state.  He  aimed  to 
take  over  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  Mesopotamia, 
dreamed  of  Babylon  and  the  East.  He  drew  up 
plans  for  the  conquest  of  England  and  had  as- 
sembled his  troops  on  the  shores  of  the  English 
Channel.  He  had  placed  on  his  head  with  his 
own  hands  the  crown  of  Charlemagne.  He 
openly  affirmed  that  he  was  the  true  heir  of  that 
Prankish  king.  Had  he  realized  his  ambition  he 
would  have  restored  the  Roman  Empire  as  a 


Gi^G  THE  FALLING  STONE 

confederation  of  kings  over  which  he  would 
himself  have  reigned  supreme  as  the  master  of 
the  world. 

In  all  this  he  was  throwing  down  the  shadows 
of  coming  events;  for,  according  to  the  prdph- 
ecy  of  the  image  and  the  beasts  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, or  the  territory  once  occupied  by  it,  was 
after  the  first  division  to  be  divided  a  second  and 
final  time  among  a  confederation  of  kings — ten 
in  number  [ten  toes,  ten  horns).  And  as  the 
toes  were  five  on  each  foot,  at  the  end  of  each 
iron  leg,  so  these  ten  kings  would  be  apportioned 
— five  in  each  of  the  first  great  political  divisions 
— five  in  Western  and  five  in  the  Eastern  Em- 
pire; that  is,  in  the  territory  distinctively  occu- 
pied by  each  division. 

No  such  tenfold  division  has  ever  taken  place. 

It  does  not  exist  to-day. 

It  is,  therefore,  future. 

Four  of  these  kingdoms  we  know.  They  are 
the  four  into  which  Alexander's  kingdom  was 
divided. 

Babylon  with  Persia,  Syria  and  Palestine. 

Egypt — with  the  African  Littoral. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  637 

Greece  with  Macedonia. 

The  Balkans,  that  portion  covered  by  Thrace, 
Bythinia,  Asia  Minor  to  the  Taurus. 

These  kingdoms  (the  entire  ten)  will  be 
brought  about  in  their  final  state  by  the  action  of 
the  people;  but  because  of  the  mixture  of  mon- 
archy and  democracy,  it  will  be  a  state  of  inco- 
hesion  and  weakness. 

Daniel  tells  us  that  among  the  ten  horns  of  the 
fourth  beast  a  little  horn  arose  before  whom 
three  horns  were  plucked  up.  This  little  horn 
therefore  is  an  eleventh  horn,  and  according  to 
the  symbol,  an  eleventh  king. 

If  you  will  now  turn  to  the  thirteenth  chapter 
of  the  Revelation  you  will  find  there  the  descrip- 
tion of  a  composite  beast. 

It  is  like  a  leopard.  It  has  the  feet  of  a  bear 
and  the  mouth  of  a  lion. 

It  has  ten  horns. 

The  licin  is  the  symbol  of  Babylon,  the  bear  of 
Medo-Persia  and  the  leopard  of  Greece. 

The  ten  horns  are  the  ten  kings. 

This  is  the  picture  of  a  kingdom  which  in- 


'^3^  THE  FALLING  STONE 

eludes  Babylon,  Medo-Persia  and  Greece,  and 
is,  therefore,  the  fourth  or  Roman  Empire. 

The  ten  kings  are  a  declaration  that  it  is  the 
Roman  Empire  in  its  final  tenfold  division. 

The  beast,  consisting  of  these  distinct  national 
characteristics,  carrying  and  therefore  control- 
ling the  coming  and  the  going  of  the  horns  or 
kings  is  the  symbol  of  a  person  whose  sphere 
of  action  is  the  region  of  the  fourth  or  Roman 
Empire,  and  who  has  power  and  authority  over 
the  ten  kings.  That  he  is  a  person  is  seen  in  the 
fifth  verse  where  it  is  written  that  to  this  beast 
was  given  "a  mouth  speaking  great  things  and 
blasphemies." 

As  a  person  authoritatively  superior  to  the 
ten  kings  this  beast  stands  related  to  them  as  an 
eleventh  king,  or  horn.  He  is  therefore  identi- 
cal with  the  little  horn  which  rose  among  the 
ten  as  seen  by  Daniel.  Thus  the  little  horn  and 
this  beast  of  Revelation  thirteenth  set  forth  a  su- 
preme king,  the  head  and  chief  of  the  ten  kings. 
This  conclusion  is  corroborated,  made  definite 
and  clear  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  the  Rev- 


THE  FALLING  STONE  639 

elation,  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  verses,  where 
it  is  written: 

"The  ten  horns  which  thou  sawest  are  ten 
kings,  which  have  received  no  kingdom  as  yet; 
but  receive  power  as  kings  one  hour  (or,  liter- 
ally,-'at  the  same  time'),  with  the  beast. 

"These  have  one  (or  the  same)  mind,  and 
shall  give  their  power  and  strength  unto  the 
beast." 

The  little  horn  of  Daniel  and  the  ten-horned 
beast  of  Revelation  set  forth  a  supreme  king,  a 
supreme  Caesar  or  Kaiser  who  will  rise  to  reign 
and  rule  over  the  ten  democratic  kings  who  are 
to  come  into  associated  power  with  him  in  the 
territory  and  realm  of  ancient  Rome. 

He  is  a  coming  king  of  kings  and  lord  of 
lords. 

He  is  an  imitation,  a  counterfeit  king  of  kings, 
a  forerunner  and  antagonist  of  the  true  King  of 
kings. 

He  is  spoken  of  in  Scripture  under  various 
titles. 

He  is  known  as  the  little  horn. 

(The  attempt  of  a  certain  school  of  expositors 


640  THE  FALLING  STONE 

to  make  the  little  horn  of  Daniel  eighth  distinct 
from  the  little  horn  of  Daniel  seventh  is  a  piece 
of  disastrous,  contradictory  and  confusing  ex- 
egesis conceived  in  absolute  error  and  certain  to 
darken  counsel  with  words  without  knowledge.) 
He  is  the  prince  that  shall  come.  The  king 
of  fierce  countenance.  The  king  who  under- 
stands dark  sentences.  The  king  of  the  North. 
The  wilful  king.  He  is  known  as  the  Rod  of 
God's  anger.  The  ax  that  hoasteth  itself  against 
God.  Tht  staff  that  lifts  itself  up.  The  man  of  the 
earth.  The  shaker  of  nations.  The  proud  man. 
The  spoiler.  The  extortioner.  The  nail  that 
seeks  to  fasten  itself  in  a  sure  place.  He  that  com- 
eth  up  out  of  the  pit.  Leviathan.  The  destroyer 
of  fortresses.  He  who  plans  destruction  while 
proposing  peace.  The  piercing  serpent.  The 
crooked  serpent.  The  transgressor.  The  man 
whose  desire  is  as  hell.  The  man  who  cannot  he 
satisfied.  The  man  who  maketh  the  earth  to 
tremble.  The  man  who  heapeth  all  nations  to 
himself.  The  king.  The  ultimate  fool  who  says 
in  his  heart  there  is  no  God.  The  king  for  whom 
Tophet  is  prepared.    The  wicked  one.    The  law- 


THE  FALLING  STONE  641 

less  one.  The  man  wiser  than  Daniel.  The 
man  from  whom  no  secret  can  be  hidden.  The 
man  of  sin.  The  son  of  perdition.  The  man  who 
says  ''I  will  be  like  the  Most  High."  The  man 
who  exalteth  himself  as  God.  The  man  whose 
coming  is  after  the  energy  of  Satan.  The  ma7i 
who  will  come  with  all  lying  signs  and  wonders. 
The  Assyrian.  The  Chaldean.  The  king  of 
Babylon. 

He  will  arise  as  a  military  leader  and  then  as 
king  from  Babylon.  Babylon  will  rise  and  grow 
like  a  mushroom.  It  will  come  up  as  in  a  night. 
It  will  be  the  commercial  center  of  the  East  and 
West.  Already  railway  tracks  are  pointing  to 
Bagdad  and  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  city.  I 
have  read  a  letter  recently  written  from  Baby- 
lon in  which  the  writer  said,  could  we  but  see 
how  the  old  canals  of  the  Euphratean  valley  had 
been  redigged  and  how  every  sign  indicated  the 
"Drive  to-the  East,"  we  would  be  startled  at  the 
near  approach  of  that  prophetic  hour  when  the 
golden  city  should  once  more  rise  in  all  her 
power  and  glory. 

This  man  of  many  titles  is  he  who  is  symbol- 


642  THE  FALLING  STONE 

ized  by  the  "Wild  Beast,"  and  is  definitely  de- 
clared by  John  to  be  "The  Anti-Christ." 

He  is  foreshadowed  by  Nimrod,  the  original 
builder  of  Babylon,  and  who  is  called,  literally, 
the  "mighty  rebel,"  by  Chedorlaomer,  by  Saul, 
by  Absalorn  (the  denier  of  the  Father)  by 
Herod,  and  by  such  an  one  as  Antiochus  Epiph- 
anes. 

By  intrigue,  by  diplomacy  he  will  become 
king  and  possessor  of  Babylon.  He  will  subdue 
or  bring  under  control,  Persia,  all  Asia  Minor,^ 
Syria,  Palestine  and  Egypt. 

On  account  of  the  troubled  and  reactionary 
times  the  ten  kings  will  invite  him  to  become 
dictator,  world  ruler.  He  will  accept.  He  will 
take  the  title  of  the  Prince  of  Rome  (Daniel  says 
he  will  be  the  prince  of  the  people  who  de- 
stroyed Jerusalem.  The  people  who  destroyed 
Jerusalem  were  Romans;  therefore,  he  will  be 
the  prince  of  the  Romans,  Prince  of  Rome). 

Thus  will  Rome  be  revived  under  its  tenfold 
form. 

Elected  as  head  of  the  ten  kings,  he  will  be  a 
king  of  kings  and  lord  of  lords. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  643 

His  character  is  clearly  set  before  as  in  Scrip- 
ture. 

He  is  a  man  of  "fierce  countenance,"  of  such 
immense  personality,  such  greatness  of  individ- 
uality that  men  will  humble  themselves  before 
him. 

His  military  genius  is  so  supreme  none  can  be 
compared  with  him;  not  Alexander,  who  con- 
quered a  world  at  thirty-three;  not  Hannibal, 
who  trod  the  Alps  beneath  him  as  though  they 
were  but  hillocks;  not  Caesar,  who  triumphed 
over  Gaul;  not  Napoleon,  who  combined  and 
exceeded  the  genius  of  all;  not  Napoleon,  who 
stands  as  a  soldier  without  a  peer;  not  one  nor 
all  of  these  are  more  than  pigmies  by  his  side. 
His  forethought,  his  knowledge  of  detail,  his 
ability  to  penetrate  and  know  the  secret  thought 
of  his  foe,  his  anticipation  of  events,  will  enable 
him  to  pass  through  all  opposition  as  though  it 
were  an  open  door  and  made  ready  for  his  pur- 
pose.   He  will  stride  from  victory  to  victory. 

He  is  a  scientist,  a  high  priest  of  the  occult. 
His  hand  is  upon  the  forces  of  the  unseen.  He 
has  a  god  he  worships,  an  invisible  presence,  a 


644  THE  FALLING  STONE 

mighty  spirit  whose  bidding  he  gladly  obeys. 
This  god  is  he  whom  Scripture  defines  as  "that 
old  serpent,  called  the  Devil,  and  Satan,"  "the 
great  dragon."  The  Apostle  John  says  the  drag- 
on, or  Devil,  will  give  him  "his  power,  his 
throne,  and  great  authority."  The  Apostle  Paul 
says  his  "coming  is  after  the  working  (or  en- 
ergy) of  Satan."  Because  of  this  Satan  whom 
the  apostle  calls  "the  god  of  this  world,"  and 
whom  our  Lord  affirms  to  be  the  "prince  (and 
ruler)  of  this  w^orld,"  he  will  come  with  "all 
power  and  signs  and  deceiving  wonders,"  won- 
ders and  signs  so  great  that  were  it  at  all  possible, 
the  Son  of  God  says,  he  would  deceive  the  very 
elect. 

He  is  a  statesman.  He  sees  that  Germany  and 
Russia  will  seek  to  combine  for  the  possession  of 
the  East.  He  will  pass  into  Palestine,  He  will 
restore  the  land  to  the  Jew.  He  will  use  the 
ships  of  one  of  the  ten  nations  to  bring  them 
from  distant  countries.  He  will  set  up  the  Jew- 
ish state.  He  will  make  "Zionism"  a  political 
fact.  He  will  enter  into  a  treaty  with  the  head 
of  the  state  for  seven  years.    His  object  will  be  to 


THE  FALLING  STONE  645 

build  up  a  buffer  against  the  inroad  of  either 
Germany  or  Russia. 

At  the  end  of  three  years  and  a  half  he  will 
break  his  treaty. 

The  judgment  of  God  will  be  loosed  upon  him 
and  his  kingdom  as  upon  Pharaoh  and  Egypt. 
It  will  stir  up  the  fierceness,  the  wickedness  and 
blasphemy  of  the  king.  He  will  turn  in  fury 
upon  the  Jews.  He  will  become  their  most  bit- 
ter and  cruel  persecutor.  It  will  be  the  time  the 
prophet  has  foretold  as  the  ''day  of  Jacob's  trou- 
ble." It  is  the  hour  of  which  the  Lord  has 
warned  as  the  "Great  Tribulation,"  a  condition 
so  fearful,  so  full  of  suffering  and  mortal  an- 
guish, suffering  from  the  hand  of  man,  from 
devils  and  the  judgments  of  God,  that  He  has 
said  there  has  never  been  anything  like  it  since 
the  world  began,  there  never  will  be  anything 
like  it  again;  a  time  so  full  of  agony  and  woe, 
of  darkness,  despair  and  deep  depression  that 
unless  God  should  shorten  the  time  "there  should 
be  no  flesh  saved." 

Rebellion  breaks  out  against  the  emperor, 

Egypt  rebels, 


646  THE  FALLING  STONE 

He  gathers  his  armies.  He  marches  thither. 
He  lays  his  hand  upon  the  treasures.  He  spoils 
the  land.    He  sweeps  back  the  rebellious  tide. 

A  rebellion  breaks  out  in  Jerusalem. 

Witnesses  have  arisen  who  testify  against 
him  as  the  son  of  perdition.  They  seek  to  turn 
the  hearts  of  the  Jews  back  to  the  faith  of  the 
fathers.  They  proclaim  that  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth was  the  true  Messiah,  that  He  is  the  true 
and  covenant  King,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  the 
God  of  the  whole  earth.  They  announce  He  is 
coming  to  Jerusalem  to  deliver  His  elect.  They 
appeal  to  the  people  to  turn  away  from  the  em- 
peror as  the  "refuge  of  lies."  They  affirm  the 
covenant  with  him  to  be  a  "covenant  with  death 
and  hell,"  and  call  upon  the  people  to  disannul 
it  and  repudiate  him. 

The  "elect  remnant"  hear  the  call  and  re- 
spond. They  deny  all  allegiance  to  this  "man  of 
the  earth." 

In  fury  he  enters  into  "the  land  of  the  glory," 
the  Holy  Land.  He  marches  with  mad  haste 
and  threatenings  toward  Jerusalem. 

In  the  midst  of  his  rush  "tidings  out  of  the 


THE  FALLING  STONE  647 

East  and  out  of  the  North  trouble  him."  He 
hears  that  Babylon  is  threatened.  The  waters 
of  the  Euphrates  are  drying  up.  The  armies 
from  the  "sunrise"  kingdom  are  moving  west- 
ward. He  goes  forth  with  increased  fury  to  de- 
stroy. He  changes  his  route  and  marches  north- 
ward to  the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  called  in  Scrip- 
ture, Har  Mageddon.  From  the  beginning  this 
plain  has  been  the  gathering  place  of  armies. 
The  dews  of  Hermon  have  fallen  here  upon  the 
banners  of  nearly  every  nation  of  the  earth,  upon 
Assyrian,  Arabian,  Babylonian  and  Egyptian. 
Here  Crusader  and  Saracen  have  met,  the 
squares  of  France  have  withstood  the  dash  of 
Mamelukes,  the  West  and  the  East  have  clashed 
for  victory,  scimetar  and  spear  have  answered 
sword  and  gun  and  the  blood  of  men  poured  out 
without  measure  has  fructified  the  soil,  given 
growth  to  grasses,  lush  and  long,  and  painted 
with  deeper  crimson  the  scarlet  poppies  of  the 
field. 

In  this  great  gathering  place  he  is  joined  by 
fresh  contingents.  After  a  pause,  he  turns  south- 
ward again  and  marches  toward  the  sacred  city. 


648  THE  FALLING  STONE 

Isaiah  describes  his  march.  With  hurrying 
footstep  he  moves.  He  will  not  allow  his  bag- 
gage to  detain  him.  Here  to-night  scarcely  halt- 
ing, miles  away  ere  noon  to-morrow.  Terror 
fills  the  air.  The  inhabitants  of  villages  flee  at 
his  approach.  Women  wail  at  the  mention  of 
his  name.  He  comes  in  sight  of  the  city.  Like 
Titus  of  old  he  pitches  his  headquarters  on  Sco- 
pus. Jerusalem  is  surrounded.  His  troops  fill 
the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat.  The  prophecy  of 
Joel  begins  to  be  fulfilled;   as  it  is  written: 

"Multitudes,  multitudes  in  the  valley  of  de- 
cision; for  the  day  of  the  Lord  is  near  in  the 
valley  of  decision." 

For  the  Lord  has  said: 

"I  will  also  gather  all  nations,  and  will  bring 
them  down  into  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and 
will  plead  with  them  there." 

It  is  the  valley  of  decision. 

It  is  the  hour  of  decision. 

The  hour  of  consummation  and  that  deter- 
mined on  is  at  hand. 

The  city  is  taken,  the  houses  rifled,  the  women 
ravished,  half  of  the  people  are  made  prisoners. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  649 

The  king  goes  to  the  temple  which  he  had  per- 
mitted the  people  to  rebuild.  He  seats  himself 
in  the  Most  Holy  place.  He  claims  that  he  is 
very  God.  God  is  force,  He  is  energy.  En- 
ergy and  force  are  God.  Man  is  the  highest  ex- 
pression of  that  energy  and  force.  He  is  the  en- 
thronement of  it  personally  and  intellectually. 
If  men  will  worship  the  idea  of  God,  he  the 
King  as  supreme  among  all  men  is  the  supreme, 
the  ultimate  manifestation  of  that  idea.  In  him 
men  may  find  God.  There  is  none  other  God 
than  man,  and  as  supreme  man,  he  is  supreme 
God.  By  the  hand  of  his  prime  minister  he 
works  signs  and  wonders  that  might  well  de- 
ceive the  elect.  He  brings  down  fire  out  of 
heaven.  He  sets  up  an  image  of  the  king.  He 
causes  it  to  be  placed  on  the  pinnacle  of  the  tem- 
ple in  the  sight  of  all.  He  commands  men  to 
worship  it,  to  pay  divine  honors,  as  of  old  they 
were  paid  to  the  image  of  Rome's  emperors. 

All  who  would  do  business  are  commanded 
to  wear  the  mark,  or  the  name,  or  the  number 
of  the  name  of  the  emperor,  either  on  the  fore- 
head or  on  the  right  hand. 


650  THE  FALLING  STONE 

The  whole  world  trembles  before  him,  and 
yet  acclaims  him. 

He  seems  to  have  reached  the  apex  of  his 
glory. 

And  now  note — 

In  giving  the  description  of  the  image  Daniel 
begins  with  the  golden  head,  then  the  breast  and 
arms  of  silver,  the  belly  and  thighs  of  brass,  the 
legs  of  iron  and  the  toes,  part  iron  and  part  clay; 
but  when  a  statue  has  been  cast  we  begin  to  build 
and  set  it  up  at  the  feet  and  work  upward  to  the 
head.  The  head  is  the  last  piece  set  on.  It  is  the 
climax. 

This  is  the  fashion  in  which  the  antitypical, 
the  actual  political  statue  will  be  set  up. 

The  ten  kings  will  come  into  view. 

These  kings  or  kingdoms  will  comprise  all 
that  was  once  Rome  as  to  territory,  the  kingdom 
of  Greece  in  its  fullest  extent,  Medo-Persia, 
Babylon;  and  then — this  eleventh  king,  the  king 
who  is  over  all  will  come  as  the  antitypical 
golden  head.  He  will  be  the  real  king  of  Baby- 
lon whom  the  prophet  sees  in  his  shadowy  form 
standing  behind  Nebuchadnezzar  when  he  says 
unto  him,  ''Thou  art  this  head  of  gold." 


THE  FALLING  STONE  651 

There  he  sits  in  the  temple  of  God.  the  head 
of  gold,  the  king  of  Babylon,  the  man  of  sin,  the 
son  of  perdition,  the  lawless  one,  the  Anti-christ. 

And  there  for  a  moment  I  shall  leave  him  and 
ask  you  now  to  consider  with  me  the  falling  stone 
which  as  it  fell  smote  the  image  on  its  feet  and 
broke  it  in  pieces. 

There  are  five  things  to  be  considered. 

The  mountain  out  of  which  the  stone  was  cut. 

The  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountains. 

The  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without 
hands. 

The  falling  stone. 

The  stone  becoming  a  great  mountain  and 
filling  the  earth. 

The  mountain  out  of  which  the  stone  was  cut. 

Strangely  enough  expositors  and  commenta- 
tors have  ignored  this  mountain,  or  passed 
lightly  over  the  mention  of  it;  and  yet,  it  is  in 
itself  a  key  and  factor  among  the  symbols. 

In  the  thirtieth  psalm  and  seventh  verse, 
David  says: 

"Lord,  by  Thy  favour  Thou  hast  made  my 
mountain  to  stand  strong." 


652  THE  FALLING  STONE 

By  "mountain"  David  means  his  throne  and 
kingdom,  the  throne  and  kingdom  of  Israel. 

The  mountain  out  of  which  the  stone  was  cut 
is  the  nation  and  kingdom  of  Israel,  but  specially 
that  side  of  the  kingdom  which  is  Judah. 

In  saying  the  stone  was  cut  out  of  the  moun- 
tain Daniel  is  saying  it  was  taken  out  of  Israel, 
out  of  Judah. 

The  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain. 

The  stone  is  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Standing  before  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim  and 
answering  concerning  the  healing  of  the  lame 
man,  as  recorded  in  the  book  of  Acts,  fourth 
chapter,  tenth  and  eleventh  verses,  the  Apostle 
Peter  says: 

"Be  it  known  unto  you  all,  and  to  all  the  peo- 
ple of  Israel  that  by  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Nazareth,  whom  ye  crucified,  whom  God  raised 
from  the  dead,  even  by  him  doth  this  man  stand 
before  you  whole. 

^^This  is  the  stone  which  was  set  at  naught  of 
you  builders,  which  is  become  the  head  of  the 
corner." 


THE  FALLING  STONE  653 

In  his  first  epistle  Peter  says  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  that  He  is: 

"A  living  stone,  disallowed  of  men,  but  chosen 
of  God  and  precious." 

He  quotes  the  Word  of  God  in  the  twenty- 
eighth  chapter  of  the  prophet  Isaiah: 

"Behold,  I  lay  in  Sion  a  chief  corner  stone, 
elect,  precious;  and  he  that  believeth  on  Him 
(the  stone)  shall  not  be  confounded." 

To  those  who  are  unbelievers  the  apostle  says 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is: 

"A  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock  of  oflence." 

In  His  discourse  recorded  in  the  twenty-first 
chapter  of  Matthew,  our  Lord  Himself  aflirms 
that  He  is  the  stone  and  in  warning  and  far- 
reaching  words  says: 

"Whosoever  shall  fall  on  this  stone  shall  be 
broken ;  but  on  whomsoever  it  shall  fall,  it  will 
grind  him  to  powder." 

Beyo'nd  all  question,  then,  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain. 

The  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without 
hands. 

As  "hands"  stand  for  the  use  of  means  which 


654  THE  FALLING  STONE 

are  natural,  "without''  hands  signifies  means  that 
are  not  natural,  means  that  are  beyond  natural. 
It  is  the  inspired  and  adverb  way  of  saying 
^'supernaturally."  As  the  mountain  is  Israel, 
and  the  stone  is  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  then 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  supernaturally 
brought  out  of  Israel.  To  be  brought  out  or 
cut  out  of  Israel,  signifies  to  originate  in  Israel. 
To  originate  in  and  out  of  Israel  is  to  be  born  in 
and  of  Israel.  The  statement  that  the  stone  was 
cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands  is  the  sym- 
bolic way  of  saying  the  birth  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  an  Israelite,  as  a  Jew,  was  supernatural. 
It  is  the  symbolic  way  of  saying  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  should  not  have  a  natural  father,  that 
God  should  be  His  Father,  and  therefore  as 
He  would  be  directly  begotten  of  God,  His 
mother,  in  the  nature  of  the  case  should  be  vir- 
gin. It  is  the  prophecy  that  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  should  be  virgin  born,  Son  of  God  and 
God  the  Son. 

Thus  away  back  In  that  far  dream  of  a  Baby- 
lonian king,  God  the  Almighty  stamped  in  the 
midst  of  the  symbols,  in  the  story  of  the  image, 


THE  FALLING  STONE  655 

the  foredetermined  and  amazing  fact  of  the  vir- 
gin birth. 

The  falling  of  the  stone. 

The  stone  should  fall  upon  the  feet  of  the 
image  and  break  it  to  pieces. 

The  falling  of  the  stone  is  the  coming  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Is  the  falling  of  the  stone  the  symbol  of  His 
first  Coming,  as  it  is  so  taught  by  some? 

To  answer  that  question  I  will  ask  another: 

When  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  the  first 
time  did  He  fall  upon  the  Roman  Empire,  over- 
throw It  and  break  it  in  pieces?  Nay!  on  the 
contrary,  the  Roman  government  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim  fell  on  Him  and 
nailed  Him  to  a  cross.  He  was  so  despised  and 
rejected  of  men,  His  own  nation  so  refused  to 
own  or  accept  Him  as  King,  that  God  the  Father 
took  Him  to  His  own  right  hand  in  Heaven 
where  for  two  thousand  years  He  has  been  seated 
as  an  exile  from  His  own  land  and  throne. 

He  did  not  fall  upon  the  feet  of  the  image 
when  He  came  the  first  time. 

Has  He,  as  some  teach,  during  this  time  of  His 


6s6  THE  FALLING  STONE 

absence  in  Heaven,  set  up  His  kingdom  on  earth ; 
and  has  this  kingdom  consumed  and  set  aside  all 
the  other  kingdoms  of  the  earth? 

Is  he  now  ruling  over  a  world  universally  sur- 
rendered to  Him,  singing  His  name  in  praise 
and  walking  in  the  ways  of  righteousness  and 
peace? 

The  kingdom  of  Christ  here! 

The  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the  king- 
doms of  our  Lord  and  His  Christ! 

Christ  reigning  and  ruling  in  all  lands  and 
owned  of  all  men  as  the  authoritative  Prince  of 
Peace! 

How  can  men  have  the  hardihood,  the  blind- 
ness of  soul  and  the  deafness  of  spirit  even  to 
suggest  such  propositions  when  every  gale  that 
comes  across  the  sea  brings  the  sound  of  battle 
and  the  shout  of  contending  foes? 

The  kingdom  of  Christ  here!  or,  the  slightest 
hint  or  shadowy  indication  that  it  is  enlarging, 
expanding  with  growing  power  and  all  compel- 
ling word!  How  can  men  find  it  in  their  hearts 
to  proclaim  such  things  in  the  ears  of  men  when 
capital  and  labor  are  in  daily  conflict;  when  law- 


THE  FALLING  STONE  657 

lessnesses  are  multiplied,  when  crime  and  vio- 
lence are  on  the  increase;  when  there  is  distress 
of  nations  and  perplexity;  when  the  people  are 
tossing  and  rushing  with  the  unrest  of  the  seas; 
when  the  Church  is  divided;  when  sects  spring 
up  like  the  weeds  of  the  field,  each  sect  with  a 
doctrine  in  the  name  of  Christ  which  contra- 
dicts or  antagonizes  the  other;  so  that,  since  the 
hour  when  Christ  offered  the  prayer  that  His 
disciples  might  be  ''one,"  the  prayer  was  never 
so  far  from  being  answered  and  never  seemed  so 
hopeless;  when  infidelity  is  multiplied  and  men 
in  the  pulpit  openly  deny  the  incarnation  of 
Christ,  His  bodily  resurrection  and  refuse  to 
accept  the  Bible  as  the  inspired,  the  infallible 
Word  of  God! 

To  talk  and  teach  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
is  here,  that  it  came  when  Christ  first  came,  that 
His  first  coming  was  the  falling  of  the  stone — 
may  welHead  anyone  familiar  with  Holy  Scrip- 
ture to  ask  whence  comes  the  inspiration  to  such 
teaching. 

But  there  is  one  fact  which  overwhelmingly 
confutes  these  follies  and  rebukes  the  excuseless- 


658  THE  FALLING  STONE 

ness  of  the  errors,  the  fact  which  demonstrates 
the  kingdom  has  not  been  set  up,  that  the  stone 
has  not  fallen. 

And  this  is  the  fact: 

When  the  stone  falls  it  is  to  smite  upon  the 
ten  toes  of  the  image  and  break  it  in  pieces;  and 
as  the  ten  toes  represent  ten  kings  and  their  king- 
doms, the  ten  kings  and  the  ten  kingdoms  must 
be  politically  existing  when  Christ  comes.  In 
addition  to  that,  they  must  be  organized  and 
confederated  under  the  supreme  or  eleventh 
king  represented  by  the  head  of  gold. 

No  such  political  conditions  existed  when  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  the  first  time. 

They  have  never  existed  at  any  time  since  He 
left  the  world. 

They  do  not  exist  to-day. 

And  as  the  Coming  of  Christ  is  to  smash  these 
kings  and  overwhelm  them  with  their  blasphe- 
mous head  before  the  kingdom  can  be  set  up  then 
not  only  has  the  kingdom  of  Christ  never  been 
set  up,  but  the  falling  of  the  stone  does  not  rep- 
resent the  first  Coming  of  Christ. 

If  the  falling  of  the  stone  does  not  represent 


THE  FALLING  STONE  659 

the  first  Coming  of  Christ  (and  it  docs  not,  and 
cannot)  then  the  falling  of  the  stone  is  the  divine 
symbol  of  our  Lord's  Second  Coming  to  set  up 
the  fifth  and  final  world  power,  the  fifth  and 
final  and  eternal  kingJoin. 

And  mark  how  He  is  coming. 

Not  silently  as  when  the  dawn  steals  over  the 
night;  not  as  when  the  kiss  of  love  is  pressed 
upon  the  lips;  not  as  when  the  fragrance  of  a 
flower  is  borne  on  the  air,  but,  as  when  a  stone  is 
flung  from  the  hand  and  comes  crashingly  down, 
smiting  and  breaking,  crushing  and  destroying 
that  on  which  it  falls. 

He  is  coming  to  smite  the  image  on  its  feet. 

He  is  coming  to  smite  the  ten  confederate 
kings. 

He  is  coming  to  overthrow  the  colossal,  the 
Devil-inspired  combination  and  lay  the  golden 
head  in  the  dust. 

He  is  coming  where  these  kings  and  their 
armies  shall  be  gathered,  and  where  this  golden 
head  shall  exalt  himself  in  wanton  bravado 
against  the  God  of  heaven  and  against  His 
Christ. 


66o  THE  FALLING  STONE 

They  will  be  gathered  at  Jerusalem. 

Hear  what  God  has  said,  and  what  He  will 
do: 

"I  will  gather  all  nations  (that  is  the  ten  na- 
tions) against  Jerusalem  to  battle." 

"I  will  also  gather  all  nations,  and  will  bring 
them  down  into  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat." 

Our  Lord  will  come  to  Jerusalem  to  meet  this 
gathering  of  the  nations. 

He  will  destroy  the  armies  of  the  king. 

He  will  cast  him  and  his  prime  minister,  the 
false  prophet,  into  the  lake  of  fire. 

Then  will  He  set  up  that  kingdom  which  shall 
never  be  destroyed,  that  fifth  and  final  kingdom 
which  shall  never  be  destroyed,  concerning 
which,  if  the  Lord  should  tarry,  I  shall  speak  to 
you  on  the  coming  Lord's  day  night. 

From  all  this  I  learn: 

God's  forecast  of  ivorld  politics  is  now  being 
fulfilled,  and  every  fulfilling  event  is  the  daily 
demonstration  that  this  book,  the  Bible,  is  the 
fully  inspired,  inerrant  Word  of  God. 

Stand  with  me  here  in  Babylon  and  look  down 


THE  FALLING  STONE  66l 

the  sweep  of  twenty- five  hundred  years  of  human 
history  foreseen  and  forecast  of  God. 

Through  the  lips  of  His  prophet  He  said  the 
Persians  should  come  and  overthrow  Babylon. 

And  there  on  time,  some  forty  years  later, 
comes  Cyrus  with  the  silver  corsleted  Persians. 
He  enters  the  golden  city  and  claims  it  as  his 
own. 

God,  in  His  unfailing  Word,  said  the  Greeks 
should  come,  trample  the  Persian  host  beneath 
their  feet. 

Behold  Alexander  at  the  head  of  his  brazen- 
coated  Greeks,  plunging  through  the  waters  of 
the  Granicus  and  enthroning  himself  here  at 
Babylon  as  the  master  of  the  world. 

God  the  Lord  said  Rome  should  be  the  great 
world  conqueror. 

Behold  it  rising  from  its  seven  hills,  stretching 
out  its  grasp  upon  the  nations,  peoples,  kindreds 
and  tongues,  till  everywhere  is  heard  the  tramp 
of  the  iron  legions  and  the  shouts  of  victory. 

And  we  have  reached  this  hour. 

In  this  hour,  the  culmination  of  all  that  has 
gone  before,  all  the  nations  and  peoples  who  once 


662  THE  FALLING  STONE 

formed  the  Roman  Empire  are  at  war  with  one 
another. 

Over  the  sounds  of  conflict  the  ominous  words 
of  the  Son  of  God  sound  more  ominous  than 
ever: 

"Nation  shall  rise  against  nation,  and  king- 
dom against  kingdom." 

The  "clay"  is  beginning  to  make  itself  known. 

The  people  are  full  of  murmuring  and  dis- 
content. 

The  spirit  of  revolt  is  in  the  air. 

The  people  are  sick  of  kings  and  dynasties. 

Presently  there  will  be  national  upheavals. 

Kings  will  lose  their  crowns. 

The  form  of  a  government  will  be  changed  in 
a  day. 

The  cry  will  be  democracy  against  autocracy. 

The  people  will  break  the  bands  of  centuries 
and  cast  aside  the  cords  of  custom. 

Democracies  will  move  to  the  threshold  of 
anarchy. 

License  will  offer  a  bribe  to  liberty. 

Everywhere  there  will  be  the  need  of  iron 
hands. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  663 

These  conditions  are  already  in  travail. 

The  birth  throes  are  giving  their  pains  and  the 
sense  of  woe  is  in  the  body  politic. 

The  shadow  of  iron  men  is  falling  even  while 
the  people  in  their  unrest  talk  of  freedom. 

The  way  is  being  prepared  for  remaking  the 
map  of  Europe  and  Asia. 

Out  of  the  new  making  must  come  sooner  or 
later,  the  ordained  and  fatal  ten. 

Over  all  is  the  shadow  of  the  great  world  head. 

As  the  conflict  deepens,  as  conditions  become 
complex  men  talk  more  openly  about  the  neces- 
sity of  concentrating  powers.  Whether  in  com- 
merce, in  trade,  in  politics  or  the  prosecution  of 
war. 

The  people  while  they  demand  liberty  on  the 
one  side,  are  calling  for  men  who  can  unify  their 
wishes,  execute  their  will,  and  yet  do  it  with  au- 
thority, personalism  and  power  that  in  other  days 
would  have  been  called  absolutism  of  govern- 
ment, usurpation  of  privilege. 

Deeper  and  darker  grows  the  shadow  of  the 
great  world  Head,  the  shadow  of  that  Devil-be- 
gotten man  who  is  the  forerunner  of  the  Christ, 


664  THE  FALLING  STONE 

the  imitation  king  of  kings  and  lord  of  lords — 
the  Anti-christ — the  world's  last  Kaiser  or 
Caesar. 

Every  day  the  events  of  the  day  are  fulfilling 
the  forecast,  and  the  warning  of  God. 

Every  thunder  of  cannon,  every  shriek  of 
shell,  every  groan  of  the  wounded,  and  moan  of 
the  dying,  all  the  unrest,  the  fear  and  the  quiver- 
ing uncertainty  paralyzing  men  and  nations  are 
crying  aloud  in  our  ears  if  we  will  but  hear  it. 

"Fulfilled!    Fulfilled !" 

Because  all  the  downsweep  of  history,  all  the 
combination  and  move  of  circumstances  are  pro- 
claiming this  prophetic  word  to  be  the  Word  of 
God ;  and  because  every  day  the  words  of  Dan- 
iel to  the  Babylonian  king  are  being  echoed  and 
re-echoed  in  the  march  of  events,  ''the  dream  is 
certain,  and  the  interpretation  thereof  sure;"  be- 
cause all  the  signs  of  the  times  indicate  that  the 
way  is  being  rapidly  prepared  for  the  rise  of  the 
ten  kings,  the  revival  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the 
appearance  and  exaltation  of  the  man  of  sin; 
because  all  such  signs  indicate  that  the  great  day 
when  the  Son  of  God  shall  appear  in  glory  and 


THE  FALLING  STONE  665 

like  the  stone  flung  down  upon  the  image  will 
come  to  smite  all  that  is  opposed  to  Him,  to  exe- 
cute wrath  and  judgment  upon  all  who  are  not 
in  union  and  fellowship  with  Him;  and  because, 
as  I  have  taught  you  consistently  through  these 
sermons  that  before  our  Lord  appears  as  King 
He  will  descend  into  the  air  and  call  His 
Church  up  to  meet  Him;  because  He  is  coming 
as  the  Bridegroom  for  His  Bride,  for  the  real, 
the  true,  the  genuine  and  regenerated  part  of  the 
professing  Church ;  and  because  He  might  come 
for  her  at  any  moment;  because  between  us  and 
that  solemn  event  there  is  not  the  thickness  of  the 
vapor  that  floats  above  the  morning  hills,  I  ap- 
peal to  you  who  are  professing  Christians  that 
you  make  your  calling  and  election  sure. 

There  is  something  more  required  of  you  than 
to  say:  "I  believe,"  be  baptized,  join  church, 
have  your  name  on  the  church  book  and  pay  your 
pew  rent  or  contribution : 

There  are  "things  which  accompany  salva- 
tion." 

You  are  called  to  turn  your  back  on  the  old 
way,  to  live  the  life  that  is  new  and  sweet  and 


666  THE  FALLING  STONE 

clean;  to  walk  in  the  highway  of  holiness,  of 
righteousness  and  truth;  to  ascend  to  the  plane 
of  spiritual  experience  and  translate  the  life  of 
Christ  in  daily  character  to  the  sons  of  men. 

A  Christian  is  one  who  seeks  to  walk  in  fel- 
lowship with  God  and  make  His  Son  the  Master 
of  his  days.  ''For  Christ's  sake"  he  will  do  the 
one  thing,  and  "for  Christ's  sake"  he  will  refuse 
to  do  the  other.  "For  me  to  live  is  Christ"  will 
be  his  watchword,  his  inspiration  and  the  im- 
pulse of  every  hour.  He  may  stumble,  he  may 
fall,  but  he  will  not  lie  still;  if  the  root  of  the 
matter  be  in  him  he  will  arise  and  go  forward 
with  renewed  determination  to  live  the  Chris- 
tian life. 

I  shall  never  forget  what  I  once  saw  when  a 
Christian  much  provoked  in  a  sudden  flash  of 
anger  at  the  unjust  attitude  of  another,  uttered 
on  oath,  and  the  unbeliever  who  had  so  greatly 
tried  him  said,  "That  is  fine,  and  you  are  a 
Christian  too."  But  the  Christian  who  had 
spoken  so  unadvisedly,  so  profanely  with  his  lips 
turned  to  the  man  who  had  been  so  mocking,  so 
pitiless,  and  with  actual  tears  staining  his  cheek 


THE  FALLING  STONE  667 

replied,  "What  I  have  just  said  has  broken  my 
heart,  not  because  you  think  of  me  as  you  do, 
but  because  I  should  have  done  so  evil  a  thing. 
God  knows  I  love  my  Lord  with  all  my  heart. 
Forgive  me  that  I  may  have  led  you  to  think 
lightly  of  His  Name,  even  for  a  moment." 

What  a  back  ground  that  was!  black  enough 
to  be  sure,  but  a  background  on  which  that  care- 
less and  most  provoking  unbeliever  could  read 
in  the  light  of  penitent  tears  and  in  the  evidence 
of  genuine  heart-ache  that  this  stumbling  Chris- 
tian taken  unaware  was  a  Christian  not  only  in 
name  but  in  fact 

You  will  make  mistakes.  We  all  do,  because 
that  old  nature  bequeathed  from  Adam  is  still 
within  us  and  seeks  to  assault  us  when  off  our 
guard;  but,  if  the  divine  life  be  there  in  you, 
you  will  hate  the  sin,  confess  it  and  call  on 
God  to  lift  you  more  and  more  above  the  flesh, 
and  more  ^nd  more  to  fill  you  with  His  Holy 
Spirit,  with  His  power  and  grace.  Nothing  will 
keep  you  back.  Like  the  apostle  you  will  for- 
get the  things  that  are  behind.  You  will  press 
on  in  spite  of  every  hindrance  to  the  shining 


A 


668  THE  FALLING  STONE 

mark,  the  goal  of  constant  fellowship  and  un- 
broken communion  with  your  Lord.  You  will 
repudiate  each  weakness  and  snatch  victory  from 
defeat. 

If  you  do  not  love  the  things  of  God;  if  you 
do  not  care  for  the  House  of  God  and  the  exer- 
cise of  prayer;  if  you  prefer  the  world  and  the 
ways  of  the  world;  if  your  heart  is  set  on  the 
pleasures  it  offers  and  you  are  determined  to 
drink  of  its  cups  at  any  cost  to  the  profession  you 
make;  if  with  all  this  indifference,  this  unre- 
strained carelessness  to  the  claims  of  Christ  and 
the  manner  and  fashion  in  which  those  who  wear 
His  name  should  walk,  you  still  keep  that  name 
and  allow  the  breath  of  scandal  to  breathe  upon 
it  and  the  mire  of  worldliness  to  stain  it,  then 
I  exhort  you  to  arouse  and  satisfy  yourself,  and 
others  as  well  as  yourself,  whether  the  profes- 
sion you  make  is  but  an  empty  sound  on  a  care- 
less tongue;  or,  whether  the  life  of  the  risen 
Christ  be  really  in  you,  slight  and  unmanifested 
though  it  may  be. 

You  cannot  elect  yourself,  but  you  can  find 
out  whether  you  are  elect;  whether  down  in  the 


THE  FALLING  STONE  669 

core  of  your  heart  you  care  to  love  and  serve  the 
Lord. 

You  have  no  time  to  lose. 

If  the  Lord  should  come  and  you  be  left  out- 
side, revealed  to  all  the  world  as  no  more  than 
an  idle  professor  your  fate  of  all  would  be  the 
worst;  for,  I  read  that  such  will  be  cast  out  into 
outer  darkness  where  there  shall  be  weeping  and 
wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth. 

Make  your  calling  and  election  sure  to-night. 

Do  not  wait  for  to-morrow. 

And  now  to  you,  the  unsaved. 

Unsaved! 

What  a  word  is  that. 

And  what  does  it  mean  to  be  unsaved? 

It  means  to  miss  union  and  fellowship  with 
Christ. 

It  means  to  miss  communion  with  the  sweetest 
and  tenderest  man  who  ever  lived.  It  means  to 
miss  the  touch  of  the  power  that  healed  the  sick 
and  quickened  the  dead.  It  means  to  miss  all 
that  makes  life  worth  living  in  this  world;  all 
that  can  give  strength  in  weakness,  joy  in  sor- 
row, hope  in  despair;   all  that  can  make  life  to 


670  THE  FALLING  STONE 

be  more  than  mere  existence,  brute-being  and 
limited  self-consciousness. 

It  means  to  be  blind,  so  blind  you  cannot  see 
the  wonder  and  the  beauty  of  the  landscape  and 
Him  who  painted  it. 

It  means  to  be  deaf,  so  deaf  you  cannot  hear 
the  symphony  nor  the  song  the  spirit  sings  in 
trusting  souls. 

It  means  to  be  dumb,  as  dumb  as  the  man  who 
has  great  whelming,  surging  thoughts  within  his 
soul  and  cannot  speak  them.  So  dumb  you  can- 
not speak  the  word  of  faith. 

It  means  to  be  half-paralyzed,  and  only  that 
alive  in  you  which  is  not  worth  the  living  by 
itself — the  animal,  the  brute  innate  in  you  and 
in  all  men. 

It  means  to  be  dead,  dead  as  the  man  wrapped 
in  the  shroud,  dead,  spiritually  dead,  without 
God  without  Christ,  and  without  hope  in  the 
world. 

What  hope  has  any  man  outside  the  Bible  and 
the  Christ  of  God? 

What  do  you  know  of  the  beyond? 

Are  you  a  fool  of  fools? 


THE  FALLING  SXpNE  67  i 

Are  you  willing  to  stand  on  the  edge  of  eter- 
nity as  it  crumbles  under  your  feet? 

Are  you  willing  to  stand  there  and  liable  to  go 
any  moment? 

In  eternity  and  unsaved! 

Unsaved!  Forsaken  of  God  at  last. 

Listen!  What  does  it  mean  to  be  forsaken  of 
God? 

It  has  been  defined  in  the  most  tremendous 
words  that  ever  came  from  human  lips;  that 
cry  on  the  cross: 

"My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me?" 

It  is  the  cry  of  God's  Christ. 

He  died  on  that  cross  as  a  sacrifice  for  sin.  He 
died  as  a  substitute  for  the  believer.  He  was 
forsaken  of  God  that  the  believer  might  never 
be  forsaken. 

If  you  do  not  believe,  if  you  do  not  accept 
Him,  you  will  be  forsaken,  and  the  cry  of  agony 
will  be  your  cry. 

To  be  forsaken  of  God! 

The  Lord  Himself  has  endeavored  to  tell  us 
what  it  means. 


672  THE  FALLING  STONE 

He  has  told  us  of  the  rich  man  in  hell. 

He  could  not  get  a  drop  of  water  for  his 
parched  tongue. 

He  could  not  send  a  warning  to  his  five  breth- 
ren that  he  might  keep  them  from  the  place  of 
torment. 

Between  him  and  the  rest  beyond  there  was  a 
great  gulf  fixed,  bottomless,  measureless,  with- 
out a  bridge. 

He  had  only  two  things. 

The  memory  of  the  good  things  he  had  left 
behind  him. 

The  certainty  of  a  hopeless,  endless  future 
before  him. 

O  man,  to  be  unsaved  I    Think  of  it! 

To  take  your  soul  into  eternity  without  a 
guarantee. 

You  may  have  wealth,  you  may  have  an  in- 
come of  a  million  a  year.  You  may  live  for  fifty 
years  and  in  perfect  health,  drink  of  every  joy, 
gratify  every  desire,  then  die  and  leave  your 
millions  to  some  fool  to  squander. 

The  body  will  be  put  in  the  ground.  It  will 
moulder.    It  will  decay  to  dust  but  your  soul! 


THE  FALLING  STONE  673 

Ah  I   There  are  things  in  the  soul  that  hurt  us. 

The  pain,  the  regret,  the  anguish  in  a  soul  last 
up  to  the  final  second,  to  the  last  breath;  and  in 
some  souls  have  been  more  intense  than  in  all  the 
preceding  years. 

What  is  the  logic  of  that? 

It  is  simple  enough.  It  is  the  truth  that  your 
body  may  wither,  die,  but  your  soul  will  con- 
tinue, and  continue  to  sufifer. 

O  man!  if  the  race  for  wealth,  your  desire  for 
the  things  of  earth  have  kept  you  away  from 
God  and  Christ;  if  your  social  relations  and 
ambitions  have  made  you  put  Christ  aside  you 
will  go  into  eternity  an  empty  soul,  a  beggar  of 
beggars.  All  you  have  accomplished,  all  you 
may  have  achieved  in  the  world  will  but  serve  to 
make  your  sorrow  and  suffering  the  greater. 

O  man,  man,  unsaved!  You  have  no  right  to 
face  such  a  failure. 

You  hijLve  no  right  to  imperil  your  soul. 

The  memory  of  happiness  fled. 

The  certainty  of  sorrow  forever. 

Where  are  you  going  to  spend  your  eternity — 
and  how? 


674  THE  FALLING  STONE 

In  all  the  universe  of  God  there  is  no  ques- 
tion so  important  as  that. 

The  mothers  of  some  of  you  men  are  in  yon- 
der Heaven. 

You  have  no  right  to  go  back  upon  the  prayers 
their  faith  breathed  out  to  God  for  you. 

You  have  no  right  to  fling  back  the  love  of 
God,  deny  His  Son,  trample  on  His  grace  and 
destroy  your  soul. 

You  can  be  saved  now. 

The  work  has  been  done. 

There  is  nothing  to  do  but  receive  and  believe 
in  a  crucified  and  risen  Lord,  as  it  is  written : 

"If  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  shall  believe  in  thine  heart  that 
God  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt 
be  saved." 

He  is  coming.     When,  we  know  not. 

The  time  is  short,  the  days  of  grace  are  pass- 
ing. 

If  you  die  as  an  unbeliever  before  Christ 
comes,  you  are  lost  forever. 

If  Christ  comes  before  you  die  while  you  are 
an  unbeliever  you  are  lost  forever. 


THE  FALLING  STONE  675 

On  the  edge  of  the  grave  on  the  threshold  of 
our  Lord's  imminent  coming  you  are  lost  now. 

I  call  upon  you.  I  call  upon  every  man  and 
woman  in  this  house  to-night  to  accept  Jesus 
Christ  as  your  personal  Saviour,  get  under  the 
blood  of  the  cross.  The  blood  He  shed  for  such 
as  you;  get  on  the  side  of  eternal  salvation,  se- 
curity, and  peace. 

Get  there  now  lest  He  come,  and  it  be  too 
late! 


X 

THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 


The  Thousand  Years  and 
After. 


My  theme  is : 

"The  wonderful  government  God  has  prom- 
ised to  set  up  on  the  earth  in  which  every  prob- 
lem of  capital  and  labor,  wealth  and  poverty, 
war  and  peace,  health  and  disease,  life  and  death 
will  be  perfectly  and  forever  solved." 

The  texts  are  three  in  number.  (Revelation 
20:  4,  Micah  4:  3,  4,  Revelation  21 :  i.) 

"They  lived  and  reigned  with  Christ  a  thou- 
sand years." 

"They  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plow 
shares,  and  their  spears  into  pruning  hooks: 
nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation, 
neither  shall  they  learn  w^ar  any  more. 

"But,  they  shall  sit  every  man  under  his  vine 
and  unde-r  his  fig  tree ;  and  none  shall  make  them 
afraid." 

"And  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth." 

Human  life  is  the  most  colossal  failure  in  the 
universe  of  God. 


^8o         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

In  all  the  universe  of  God  there  is  nothing 
equal  to  this  failure. 

This  failure  is  indicated  and  marked  by  four 
amazing  characteristics — brevity,  uncertainty, 
mystery  and  inadequacy. 

The  brevity  is  measured  by  seventy  years  as 
the  official  term  of  life. 

Out  of  these  seventy  you  must  take  twenty  that 
the  individual  may  reach  majority;  out  of  the 
fifty,  you  must  take  ten  for  the  finding  of  a  place 
in  life;  out  of  the  forty,  ten  years  more  in  which 
to  achieve  possible  success;  out  of  the  remain- 
ing thirty,  you  must  give  one-half  to  sleep,  to 
eating  and  drinking,  and  probable  sickness;  of 
the  final  fifteen,  five  years  must  be  allotted  for 
steps  down  the  slant  of  life  to  the  grave. 

Ten  years  of  actual,  possible  living. 

And  what  are  ten  years?  What  is  a  decade? 
What  are  seventy  years  to  the  centuries  and  the 
ages  gone,  or  the  ages  to  come? 

O,  it  is  brevity,  indeed. 

And  In  such  brevity,  what  is  your  life? 

It  is  a  vapor,  a  mist  above  the  morning  hills, 
a  bubble  on  the  tide,  the  spume  of  a  broken 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         68 1 

wave,  a  touch  of  the  lips,  a  pressure  of  the  hands, 
a  sigh,  the  last  notes  of  a  song,  a  tale  that  is  told ; 
it  is  the  flying  of  a  bird  out  of  the  night  through 
an  open  window  across  a  banqueting  hall  with 
its  light,  its  warmth,  its  clink  of  glass,  the 
laughter  and  song,  and  out  again  through  an 
open  window  into  the  night  once  more,  the  whir 
of  a  wing,  a  flash — and  gone. 

O,  it  is  brief,  this  life  of  yours  and  mine. 

If  it  be  brief,  it  is  uno'ertain. 

David,  the  king,  said,  "There  is  but  a  step  be- 
twixt me  and  death." 

He  was  wrong.  There  is  only  the  beat  of 
your  heart.  Here!  let  me  put  my  finger  on  my 
pulse,  one,  two,  three.  I  listen  to  my  heart.  I 
feel  the  thud  of  it  here,  striking  under  my  ear. 
Let  it  stop! — gone. 

A  man  and  his  wife  sat  at  a  table  under  the 
shade  of  the  evening  lamp,  in  the  quiet  of  the 
home. 

He  reached  round  and  asked  her  to  give  him 
one  of  the  new  books  from  the  rack.  She  passed 
it  to  him,  remarking,  she  was  sure  he  would 
like  it. 


682         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

4 

He  answered  kindly  and  loyally: 

"You  have  read  it.  If  you  liked  it,  I  know  I 
will." 

There  was  silence  between  them. 

Then,  after  a  while,  she  asked,  and  naturally: 
'What  do  you  think  of  it?" 

There  was  no  answer. 

After  a  little  longer  silence,  she  said,  calling 
him  by  his  name: 

"I  really  believe  you  are  asleep." 

Still  he  made  no  answer. 

Somewhat  annoyed,  she  arose  and  looked  at 
him. 

He  was  asleep. 

But  it  was  that  sleep,  from  which  no  man 
could  wake  him. 

The  eyes  were  open,  the  book  was  in  his  grasp, 
but,  he  had  gone. 

Over  there  in  France  where  they  put  a  crimi- 
nal to  death  they  do  not  tell  him  the  hour  of  his 
execution. 

There  he  lies  asleep,  across  his  narrow,  iron 
bed. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         6 S3 

The  gray  light  of  the  early  morning  comes 
filtering  in  through  the  bars  of  his  cell. 

He  is  dreaming,  dreaming  of  the  days  of  boy- 
hood and  the  hours  of  innocence,  some  far  away 
sunny  day  when  he  played  in  poppy-filled  field 
or  loitered  by  the  murmuring  brook.  Suddenly 
he  feels  a  hand  laid  on  his  shoulder.  He  awakes 
with  a  start  to  confront  the  stern  gaze  of  silent 
men.  Then  they  announce  his  appeal  has  been 
rejected.  There  is  one  imperative  word  spoken, 
"Come."  He  arises  and  follows.  There  outside 
the  prison  door  is  the  hideous,  red  thing  that 
will  take  his  life. 

That  is  just  your  case. 

You  are  under  sentence  of  death. 

You  do  not  know  the  hour. 

You  are  here  to-night  full  of  your  plans  and 
ambitions. 

Any  moment  the  hand  may  be  laid  on  you,  the 
voice  may  bid  you  come;  and  a  week  from  now 
you  may  be  under  the  sod,  the  wheel  of  time 
rolling  over  your  grave  and  the  place  that  knows 
you  now  knowing  you  no  more  forever. 

Uncertain  is  your  life. 


684         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

If  it  be  brief,  if  it  be  uncertain,  it  is  a  mystery. 

The  scholar  of  Baliol  has  said,  "The  dust  the 
summer  winds  waft  hither,  are  not  more  dead  to 
iv hence  and  wither?" 

TV  hence  did  we  come? 

From  some  seed  flung  down  by  a  swift  passing 
world,  or  from  a  drop  of  protoplasmic  matter 
that  through  long  and  weary  ages  evolved  a 
snake,  a  serpent,  a  lizard,  then  anthropoid  ape, 
a  brutal  beast  of  a  man? 

Did  we  come  from  above  or  below? 

Have  we  fallen  down  or  fallen  up? 

What  are  we? 

Are  we  mud  or  mind,  matter  or  spirit,  angel 
or  devil? 

What  are  these  floating,  fragmentary,  remi- 
niscent things  in  us,  the  sound  of  a  song,  a  laugh, 
the  glimpse  of  a  landscape,  the  babble  of  a 
stream  over  its  stones,  half  felt  emotions  and 
blurred  concepts?  Are  they  the  left-over  things 
from  a  former  existence? 

Is  there  any  real,  actual  personality  in  us  we 
may  honestly  call  our  own?  How  many  indi- 
vidualities of  past  generations  are  struggling  in 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         685 

US?  Is  our  personality  the  concrete,  or  the  multi- 
plication of  other  personalities;  so  that,  some- 
times in  a  dozen  moments  a  dozen  different  per- 
sons seem  to  be  in  us;  or,  we  seem  to  be  these 
different  and  distinctive  persons? 

Have  we  a  soul,  after  all,  or  is  the  soul  noth- 
ing more  than  a  function  of  a  material  construc- 
tion, and  when  the  construction  is  broken  up  by 
death  the  function  at  an  end? 

Whither  do  we  go? 

When  I  die,  when  I  breathe  my  last  breath 
shall  I  step  into  an  unseen  chariot  and  be  swept 
upward  to  the  open  gates  flung  wide  to  welcome 
me  to  the  inviting  and  longed-for  city  of  peace 
and  joy;  or,  when  I  die,  does  the  bell  ring,  the 
curtain  drop,  the  footlights  go  out,  the  play  over 
— the  house  empty — night  and  silence? 

Oh,  listen.  I  listen,  and  all  I  can  hear  is  the 
plash  of  a  tear  or  the  sound  of  the  clods  as  they 
fall  on  the  coffin  lid. 

Over  all  is  the  abiding  question: 

"To  BE,  or  NOT  to  BE?" 

And  the  question  is  always  followed  by — a 
Guess. 


686         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

Brevity,  uncertainty,  mystery  and  crown- 
ing all — 

Inadequacy. 

Ask  a  man  who  has  lived  seventy  years,  who 
has  arrived,  who  has  achieved  something  in  life, 
whether  he  is  satisfied;  whether  all  he  has  put 
into  his  years  of  effort  and  toil  finds  its  compen- 
sation in  his  success.  He  will  smile  at  you.  We 
know  more  at  twenty  than  we  do  at  seventy.  A 
man  has  to  live  many  years  to  find  out  how  little 
he  knows,  how  little  he  can  know. 

You  have  read,  perhaps,  that  story  of  Balzac, 
the  "Peau  de  Chagrin."  A  man  found  a  wild 
ass's  skin.  It  enabled  him  to  obtain  his  wish; 
but  each  time  a  wish  was  granted  the  skin  shrank, 
and  when  the  last  wish  was  accorded,  it  shriv- 
eled up. 

You  have  to  pay  for  what  you  achieve.  It 
costs  tremendously.  Your  soul  shrinks,  your 
mind  shrinks  and  your  body  shrinks.  You  pay 
out  your  soul,  your  mind,  your  body.  You  give 
away  your  life  forces.  That  is  the  reason  why 
men  who  have  achieved  things  have  wrinkled 
foreheads  and  bent  bodies.    They  are  a  mass  of 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         687 

quivering  nerves.  Their  bodies  are  like  torture 
chambers.    They  are  full  of  anguish  and  pain. 

Tell  me,  does  this  effort,  the  labor  of  mind 
and  body,  the  heart  ache,  the  lamentation,  the 
tragedy  pay  for  what  you  get  out  of  life;  for 
the  suffering,  the  intensity?  Ah,  some  of  us  have 
lived  a  million  years  in  a  moment.  In  that  mo- 
ment was  concentrated  all  there  is  of  feeling, 
experience,  the  innermost  of  damnation. 

Does  it  pay? 

But,  I  am  speaking  of  the  man  who  has  suc- 
ceeded. 

Look  at  the  great  mass. 

They  are  like  dumb  driven  cattle,  like  galley 
slaves  chained  to  the  oar,  pulling  at  the  oar  but 
making  no  progress. 

They  have  nothing.  They  have  no  home,  nor 
even  a  piece  of  ground  to  be  buried  in.  They 
live  from  hand  to  mouth.  They  are  whip- 
lashed  by  necessity.  They  have  no  hope.  There 
is  no  light  in  their  countenance.  They  are  like 
machines  wound  up.  At  last  a  cog  breaks,  or  a 
wheel,  something  falls  out  of  place,  they  go  to 
pieces  and  are  cast  aside  like  a  lot  of  scrap  into 
the  dump  heap  of  dust  we  call  the  grave. 


688         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

Nor  is  this  all.  Men  are  filled  with  passions, 
with  appetites;  and  these  passions  and  appetites 
leap  upon  them  like  wolves,  like  wild  beasts. 
Men  hate  them,  cry  out  against  them  and  then, 
follow  them,  yield  to  them,  shiveringly  obey 
them  as  rod-smitten  bond  slaves. 

Nor  even,  is  this  all.  Men  do  not  die  as  the 
day  dies,  softly,  but  again  and  again  with  agony, 
fearing  to  die;  but  because  of  their  sufferings 
cursing  each  moment  they  do  not  die. 

Look  about  you,  look  upon  the  world,  a  world 
full  of  agony,  of  tragedy  and  unspeakable  an- 
guish in  body,  soul,  mind,  and  tell  me  that  this 
is  the  best  and  most  perfect  life;  tell  me  that 
human  life  is  a  triumphant  success;  be  brave, 
honest  and  independent  of  convention  and  speak 
the  truth. 

The  incompleteness  of  life  mechanically  is 
daily  demonstrated. 

You  use  a  telescope  and  boast  of  it,  but  you 
use  it  because  your  eyes  fall  short  in  vision.  You 
use  a  telephone  because  your  voice  will  not 
carry.  You  have  rapid  transit  to  overcome  the 
slowness  of  your  natural  locomotion.    Every  sur- 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         689 

geon,  every  physician  is  a  protest  against  the 
failure  of  the  body;  every  teacher  is  a  testimony 
to  the  need  of  the  mind  ;  every  act  of  legislation, 
all  the  efforts  at  reform  are  protests  on  the  part 
of  man  against  his  present  condition. 

All  these  bear  witness  that  human  life  is  not 
complete,  that  in  so  far  as  its  incompleteness  it 
is  a  failure. 

And  the  failure  of  life  individually  is  empha- 
sized by  its  failure  governmentally. 

The  record  of  human  government  Is  the  rec- 
ord of  battle,  bloody  tyranny  and  oppression, 
tragedy  and  lamentation,  murdered  men,  vio- 
lated women,  orphaned  children,  ruined  cities, 
monuments  overturned,  fields  scorched  with 
fire,  civilization  destroyed;  the  history  of  the 
world  is  the  history  of  one  civilization  after  an- 
other destroyed.  At  this  present  moment  fifteen 
or  twenty  of  the  foremost  nations  of  the  earth 
are  leaping  at  each  other's  throats  gorging 
themselves  with  one  another's  blood.  All  the 
genius  and  science  of  man  is  engaged  in  invent- 
ing instruments  of  destruction.  The  victory  is 
reckoned  by  the  number  of  the  enemy  killed, 


690         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

wounded,  maimed  or  made  prisoners.  Each  is 
seeking  to  do  the  other  the  greater  harm.  Each 
is  looking  over  the  trench  at  the  other  in  the 
hope  the  other  will  starve  and  agonize.  And  if 
to-night  the  world  should  end  the  angels  of  God 
would  look  eastward  in  horror  at  Ypres,  La 
Chapelle,  the  Somme,  Verdun  and  the  battle- 
fields of  the  South  and  East  and  say,  "there 
human  government  went  down  in  blood  and 
shame." 

If  peace  should  now  be  made  It  could  not 
abide.  It  would  only  be  the  prelude  to  fiercer 
conflict. 

England  could  not  demobilize.  An  English 
admiral  has  said  if  Germany  had  moved  by 
sea  and  land  upon  England  at  the  beginning, 
England  was  so  unprepared,  so  defenseless  she 
would  have  been  at  the  feet  of  Germany  and 
her  vassal  for  a  hundred  years.  England  just 
came  too  near  to  disaster  to  disband  her  army 
now. 

France  was  too  near  being  caught  and  held  at 
Calais  to  set  aside  her  heroic  and  self-devoted 
army. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         691 

Russia  has  learned  that  no  matter  how  many 
millions  of  men  she  may  have  they  are  of  no 
avail  without  artillery  and  guns,  plentiful  ammu- 
nition and  strict  discipline. 

Germany  after  nearly  three  years  of  war  in 
which  she  has  been  able  to  keep  the  invaders' 
feet  from  ofif  her  soil,  feels  herself  justified  in 
the  forty  years'  preparation  that  gave  her  at  the 
outset  the  best  guns  and  gives  her  to-day  the 
present  strength  in  organization,  in  generalship 
and  power.  Germany  cannot  disband  that  army 
which  so  far  has  been  a  rampart  of  steel  against 
which  the  Allies  have  dashed  in  vain. 

But  admit  for  the  sake  of  argument  the  na- 
tions should  disarm  and  peace  be  declared,  the 
Word  of  the  living  God  has  said  that  at  the 
very  time  when  they  shall  say  peace  and  safety 
sudden  destruction  shall  come  upon  them  as 
travail  upon  a  woman  with  child  and  they 
shall  not  escape;  and  over  all  is  heard  the 
words  of'  the  Son  of  God  declaring  that  to  the 
end  wars  and  desolations  are  determined;  that 
till  Fie  Himself  returns  there  will  be  wars  and 
rumors  of  wars,  that  nation  shall  rise  against 
nation. 


692         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

Admit  that  peace  will  be  made,  it  could  not 
be  permanent. 

The  need  and  the  law  of  expansion  among  the 
nations  would  make  it  impossible. 

Germany  must  expand.  She  feels  her  need  to 
push  eastward  and  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  Should 
she  do  so  she  would  be  at  the  back  door  of  India 
and  this  would  cut  the  British  Empire  in  two. 
She  would  be  a  barricade  in  the  way  of  Russia 
to  that  Constantinople  she  has  coveted  for  cen- 
turies. Germany  must  expand  upon  the  sea. 
Within  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years  she  has  shown 
her  ability  to  compete  in  the  markets  of  the 
world  and  her  "Made  in  Germany"  was  a  chal- 
lenge and  an  issue  with  every  nation.  Should 
she  expand  her  marine  she  would  menace  the  su- 
premacy of  England  on  the  sea,  and  when  the 
supremacy  of  England  on  the  sea  is  set  aside  she 
is  shorn  of  her  power  and  sooner  or  later  would 
be  cut  loose  from  her  "little  lions,"  her  colonies 
across  the  seas.  Should  the  North  Sea  become 
in  reality  the  German  Sea,  should  Germany  ob- 
tain control  of  the  English  Channel  it  would  be 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         693 

English  no  longer  and  France  would  be  reduced 
to  a  province. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case  the  effort  at  ex- 
pansion made  on  the  part  of  each  nation  would 
require  the  support  and  need  of  armies  to  en- 
force and  sustain  it. 

But  let  it  be  said  that  disarmament  remains 
and  w^ar  upon  the  battlefield  is  at  an  end,  there 
will  be  seen  rising  on  the  horizon  that  immense 
and  spectrelike  thing  we  call  the  social  revo- 
lution. 

At  noontide  look  upward  to  the  sky.  There  it 
is  like  the  blue  dome  of  an  infinite  temple.  The 
sun  is  hanging  in  the  midst  like  a  scintillating 
censer  and  pouring  forth  the  wealth  of  its  golden 
light.  The  mountains  rise  in  the  distance  like 
the  altars  of  the  gods.  The  valleys  are  like  laps 
of  bounty,  the  rivers  stretch  like  silver  harp- 
strings  to  the  sea.  The  sea  thunders  back  its 
diapason  .and  pours  its  foam-fringed  waves  like 
"kneeling  worshippers"  upon  the  shore.  The 
forests  range  over  hill  and  dale  like  unbroken 
ranks  of  marching  armies,  the  waters  of  river 
and  lake  and  sea  are  full  of  fish,  the  woods  are 


694         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

full  of  game,  there  is  land  everywhere  in  rich- 
ness and  beauty,  land  enough  and  room  enough 
for  every  man  to  have  a  home  and  gratify  his 
every  natural  and  implanted  need. 

And  yet,  it  is  not  so. 

It  is  to-day  as  it  always  has  been.  The  few 
are  rich,  the  many  are  poor.  In  spite  of  all  pro- 
test against  the  phrase,  nevertheless  it  is  true, 
the  rich  grow  richer  and  the  poor  poorer. 

In  olden  times  when  the  multitude  began  to 
murmur  they  gave  them  cornships,  distributed 
bread  to  the  hungry  or  gave  them  public  shows 
to  entertain  them  and  turn  their  minds  away 
from  their  straitened  circumstances  and  their 
discontent;  and  when  this  would  not  satisfy  the 
rulers  fomented  foreign  wars  and  sent  the  peo- 
ple out  to  the  slaughter  pens  of  battle  that  the 
ranks  of  insubordination  and  revolt  might  be 
thinned. 

But  that  will  not  do  now. 

Education  is  universal.  Knowledge  is  cheap, 
the  means  of  it  at  every  hand  and  many  run  to 
and  fro.  The  peoples  of  every  clime  visit  each 
other,  mingle  and  mix.     What  is  known  at  one 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         695 

end  of  the  earth  is  known  at  the  other.  Every- 
where the  Gospel  of  discontent  is  preached  by 
word,  by  written  article,  by  picture,  by  speaking 
cartoons  and  moving  film. 

A  man  buys  a  cheap  chromo,  the  copy  of  a 
masterpiece.  As  he  stands  before  it  he  asks  him- 
self why  he  should  not  possess  the  original 
as  well  as  another.  He  sees  a  car  go  by,  the  fa- 
ther and  mother  lying  back  soft-cushioned  in 
luxury  with  their  pampered  child.  He  looks 
down  at  his  own  boy  covered  with  grime  bend- 
ing to  work  as  he  did  and  his  fathers  before  him 
and  a  frown  wrinkles  his  brow,  it  deepens,  and 
he  gives  a  fiercer  turn  to  his  knife-blade  as  he 
sharpens  it  on  the  revolving  stone. 

Before  the  war  the  socialistic  discontent  be- 
gan to  mutter  in  the  German  Reichstag.  It 
made  itself  felt  in  the  laboring  class  in  England. 
It  gave  sabotage  to  France.  It  was  a  rising  and 
deepening' tide  in  this  country.  The  laborer,  the 
wage-earner,  took  on  a  sullen  and  resentful  mien 
and  sought  more  than  equality  with  the  em- 
ployer, ownership  and  mastery  were  seen  to  be 
the  brooding  and  fermenting  ideas.    They  have 


696         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

grown  lawlessly  independent.  No  man  is  so  in- 
dependent and  insufferable  as  the  employee  who 
has  nothing.  His  independent  manner  and  his 
incivility  are  his  asset,  as  he  thinks,  of  liberty,  of 
freedom.  The  demand  is  for  higher  wages, 
shorter  hours,  less  work.  Let  the  war  stop  to- 
morrow and  this  socialistic  demand,  this  spirit 
of  revolt  against  capital  will  rise  and  sweep  all 
before  it  and  instead  of  national  we  shall  have 
social  and  industrial  war.  The  Word  of  God 
in  solemn  warning  tells  us  the  rich  are  ''heap- 
ing" their  treasures  together  for  the  last  times 
that  it  may  be  seized  and  squandered  by  the 
mob. 

But,  let  it  be  said  the  social  republic  is  estab- 
lished, it  cannot  abide  in  peace. 

It  is  doomed  by  the  basic  law  of  human  life. 

That  law  is  self-interest.  Self-interest  is  a 
magnificent  factor  in  human  history.  It  levels 
the  mountains,  fills  up  the  valleys,  builds  cities 
and  changes  the  wilderness  into  fruitful  fields. 
The  thing  which  will  send  you  men  out  to 
mingle  in  the  swirl  and  rush  and  tide  of  life  to- 
morrow will  be  this  impelling  factor  of  self- 
interest. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         697 

It  has  been  the  secret  of  human  achievement, 
but  it  carries  its  penalty,  the  penalty  of  the 
impingement  of  personality  upon  personality. 
The  strength  of  a  man  is  in  ratio  to  his  personal- 
ity. If  your  personality  is  actual  and  of  avail 
you  will  resent  anything  that  seeks  to  hinder  or 
undervalue  it.  You  will  resent  even  a  frown  of 
disapproval  as  an  assault  upon  that  individual- 
ism. You  will  not  tolerate  it;  and  it  is  this  in- 
tensity of  personalism  as  the  expression  of  self- 
interest  that  strikes  against  other  personalisms 
and  produces  conflict.  Here  is  a  man  who  is  a 
laborer.  He  becomes  a  walking  delegate.  He 
exercises  authority  over  others.  He  becomes  a 
contractor,  then  a  grafter  (the  transition  is 
easy)  then  a  capitalistic  oppressor.  Others  re- 
volt and  the  conflict  is  on. 

And  there  is  no  hope  of  changing  the  out- 
come. 

No  matfer  how  far  you  may  project  human 
life  the  end  of  every  proposition  and  scheme  for 
abiding  human  peace  and  personal  satisfaction 
will  be  a  failure  unless  you  can  change  the  con- 
stitution of  man  himself. 


698         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

Unless  you  can  make  one  man  set  up  the  per- 
sonality of  another  and  consider  it  and  its  inter- 
ests before  his  own;  unless  you  can  make  him 
an  entirely  new  creature  (and  this  is  impossible 
by  evolution),  no  matter  how  far  you  may  pro- 
ject human  life  it  must  end  in  failure. 

No  matter  how  far  you  may  culture  the  indi- 
vidual you  can  never  eliminate  these  funda- 
mental characteristics:  brevity,  uncertainty, 
mystery  and  inadequacy. 

No  matter  how  far  you  may  project  the  line 
of  human  government,  whether  autocracy,  aris- 
tocracy, oligarchy,  monarchy,  democracy,  at  the 
end  is — failure. 

Think  of  it,  brevity,  uncertainty,  mystery,  in- 
adequacy, <ivar,  famine,  pestilence,  poverty,  dis- 
ease, agony,  suffering,  suffering  of  body,  and 
soul  and  mind,  death,  the  grave  and — silence. 

Would  you  dare  to  stand  up  and  tell  me  in  the 
face  of  all  that,  in  the  face  of  this  phantas- 
magoria that  human  life  and  the  experiment  of 
human  self  government  have  been  a  success? 

Nay!    They  have  been  a  colossal  failure. 

The  cause  of  this  failure  is  twofold. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         699 

Primarily,  because  man  refused  to  fulfil  the 
purpose  of  God  concerning  Him. 

God  purposed  to  make  man  His  vicegerent, 
His  representative  incarnation. 

The  one  condition:  man  should  surrender 
himself  to  the  personality  of  God,  allow  God  to 
become  enthroned  in  him. 

Had  he  done  so  he  would  not  have  been 
through  all  these  long  ages  a  mere  animal  work- 
ing with  tools,  but  a  god  who  should  have  com- 
manded and  it  would  have  been  done;  he  should 
have  spoken  and  it  would  have  stood  fast.  In- 
stead of  belonging  to  the  chain  gang  of  labor, 
earning  his  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  he 
would  have  been  a  prince  upon  his  throne,  his 
royal  sceptre  his  slightest  will. 

God  never  meant  man  to  be  a  toiling  slave. 
He  never  meant  him  to  be  dependent  on  second- 
ary means.  He  meant  him  to  move  and  act  as 
the  Man  of  Nazareth.  When  He  came  to  the 
waters  of  the  lake  He  just  stepped  upon  them 
and  not  a  drop  touched  the  arches  of  His  instep 
as  He  walked  like  one  upon  the  motionless 
mosaic  of  a  marble  floor. 


700         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

But  man  listened  to  his  own  self-conscious- 
ness. 

He  was  taken  up  with  himself. 

He  would  be  the  god  of  this  world  and  un- 
aided of  any  other  personality  than  his  own. 

He  turned  his  back  upon  God  and  became  an 
intellectual  and  immoral  animal. 

The  second  and  instrumental  cause  of  man's 
action  and  resultant  fall  and  failure  was  the  en- 
trance into  and  the  impact  of  an  immense  per- 
sonality upon  the  world. 

That  personality  we  call  the  serpent,  the 
Devil  and  Satan.  Serpent  because  of  his  sinu- 
ous, silent  and  gliding  way,  everywhere  distill- 
ing and  infusing  his  poison;  Devil  that  is,  slan- 
derer and,  therefore,  liar;  Satan,  that  means, 
adversary,  hinderer,  rebel.  He  is  the  opposite 
of  God's  positive.  He  is  the  emphasized  nega- 
tive. He  is  no/ holy.  He  is  no/ pure.  He  is  wo/ 
righteous.  He  is  not  good.  He  is  not  truth. 
He  is  not  anything  God  is  or  likes.  He  is  night 
to  morning,  darkness  to  light,  evil  to  good. 

He  whispered  to  man  that  man  was  in  no  need 
of  being  in  leading  strings  to  any  superior  God; 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         701 

he  had  in  himself  all  the  elements,  all  the  re- 
quirement, all  the  endowment  sufficient  to  en- 
able him  to  make  the  world  his  own  and  rule  it 
as  God. 

Man  entered  into  partnership  with  the  Devil, 
became  his  enthronement  instead  of  the  en- 
thronement of  God.  He  became  the  DeviTs 
dupe  and  slave.  For  six  thousand  years  he  has 
led  man  into  the  debauchery  of  brutism,  self- 
gratification  and  sin,  into  idolatry,  false  religion, 
and  unbelief. 

Full  of  self-consciousness  and  self-exaltation 
man  has  endeavored  to  regain  the  place  from 
which  he  fell.  All  his  inventions  have  been  an 
expression  of  his  determination  to  be  the  god 
and  master  of  nature  and  thus  the  god  of  the 
world;  but  all  his  inventions  have  been  and  are 
but  crutches  revealing  his  shortage  and  descent 
from  original  power. 

In  spite  of  his  partnership  with  the  Devil, 
that  partnership  which  the  Son  of  God  recog- 
nized when  He  said  to  men,  "This  is  your  hour 
and  the  power  of  darkness,"  (or,  literally  the 
potentate  of  darkness)  ;   in  spite  of  all  the  efforts 


702         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

he  has  made,  seemingly  at  times  ahiiost  super- 
human, he  has  failed  and  every  hour  only  evi- 
dences he  must  fail. 

He  is  a  dethroned  god  under  the  ban,  and  has 
no  power  now  to  reach  the  place,  by  any  effort 
of  his  own,  that  might  have  been  his. 

He  is  a  failure. 

A  colossal  failure. 

But  when  God  is  rejected  upon  one  plane  of 
His  purpose  He  always  (speaking  after  the  man- 
ner of  men)  rises  to  a  higher. 

When  the  natural  man  whom  He  created  re- 
fused to  walk  in  partnership  w^ith  Him,  He 
brought  into  view  that  purpose  which  He  had 
purposed  from  unbegun  eternity.  His  purpose 
concerning  the  earth.  Whatever  may  have  been 
His  purpose  in  detail  in  the  creation  of  other 
worlds  I  do  not  know.  The  Psalmist  has  told  us 
in  general  terms.  He  says  the  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  expanse  showeth  His 
handiwork. 

The  omnipotence  of  God  is  told  out  in  yonder 
sky  in  the  terms  of  suns  and  nebuhie  and  systems, 
and  in  every  coruscation  of  light  that  breaks  like 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         703 

foaming  waves  on  shores  of  countless  universes; 
but  this  world  of  ours  is  one  of  the  most  insig- 
nificant of  all.  He  did  not  create  it  as  the  su- 
preme expression  of  His  omnipotence.  It  does 
show  omnipotence  in  every  pebble  on  the  shore, 
in  every  blade  of  grass  as  well  as  lifted  mountain 
range,  but  He  did  not  create  it  for  that.  He 
created  it  that  it  might  be  the  arena  for  the  reve- 
lation of  His  love,  that  it  might  be  the  revelation 
of  His  heart. 

He  anticipated  the  creation  and  the  fall  of 
man  and  purposed  to  send  His  Son  into  this 
world  to  become  the  incarnate  redeemer  and 
saviour  of  men.  He  ordained  the  place  of  the 
cross  and  the  hour  of  His  death  thereon. 

In  the  fulness  of  time  He  came.  In  coordina- 
tion with  the  Father  and  the  Spirit  He  formed 
for  Himself  a  human  nature  from  the  seed  and 
cell  of  a  virgin  woman.  At  the  appointed  mo- 
ment He  went  to  His  death.  He  offered  Him- 
self as  a  sacrifice  for  sin.  He  arose.  He  as- 
cended. He  sits  in  yonder  Heaven  the  eternal 
God-man.     God  and  man,  two  natures,  human 


704         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

and  divine,  in  one  body  and  one  person  forever, 
the  Second  Man,  the  new  Adam,  the  spiritual 
Head  of  the  race,  able  to  give  new  and  spiritual 
life  to  men. 

For  two  thousand  years  an  immense  spiritual 
gestation  has  been  going  on.  There  has  been 
forming  in  this  world  as  a  babe  is  formed  under 
the  bosom  of  the  expectant  mother,  a  spiritual 
body.  That  body  is  the  Church.  By  the  Church 
I  do  not  mean  the  great  professing  system  of 
Christianity,  but  the  true,  the  genuine  Church 
of  which  we  are  members  who  by  faith  in  Christ 
crucified  and  risen  have  been  made  partakers  of 
His  life.  His  nature,  and  indwelt  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  are  linked  up  to  His  risen  and  glorified 
body  in  Heaven.  Each  member  of  this  body  is 
a  son  of  God  in  embryo. 

Like  the  gestation  of  a  human  body  the  spirit- 
ual body  will  have  its  birth  hour.  That  birth 
hour  will  be  at  the  Coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  He  is  Coming  as  King,  as  Lord  of 
lords,  as  the  God  of  the  whole  earth ;  but  before 
He  comes  as  such  He  will  descend  softly,  silently 
as  the  Head  of  the  Body  into  the  air.     He  will 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         7^5 

raise  the  dead  who  have  died  in  His  name.  He 
will  transfigure  the  living  who  are  His.  He  will 
gather  them  to  Himself  and  take  them  tempo- 
rarily into  the  upper  and  golden  city. 

As  soon  as  this  birth  takes  place  then  will  be 
seen  the  acceleration  of  that  other  and  terrible 
gestation  which  has  been  going  on  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fall. 

From  the  beginning  of  human  history  there 
have  been  but  two  men  in  the  sight  of  God,  the 
First  man  and  the  Last,  Adam  and  Christ;  so, 
have  there  been  but  two  seeds,  the  seed  of  the 
woman  and  the  seed  of  the  serpent. 

The  seed  of  the  woman  is  the  Christ  of  God, 
Christ  the  Head  and  Christ  the  Body,  the 
Church. 

The  seed  of  the  serpent  is  the  natural  man  and 
this  system  we  call  "the  world."  Through  the 
ages  this  system  has  been  developing  in  sin,  in 
animalism,*  in  idolatry,  in  philosophy,  science 
and  unbelief. 

After  the  departure  of  the  Church  it  will  de- 
velop with  amazing  rapidity  along  lines  of  gov- 


7o6         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

ernment  and  blasphemous  repudiation  of  God 
and  His  Christ. 

I  have  told  you  in  preceding  sermons  that 
twenty-five  hundred  years  ago  God  gave  the 
rulership  of  the  world  to  the  Gentile  nations 
occupying  the  territory  from  Scotland  to  the 
Euphrates,  from  Germany  to  Africa;  that  this 
rule  was  ordained  to,  and  did,  descend  through 
the  four  great  empires,  Babylon,  JMedo-Persia, 
Greece  and  Rome;  that  Rome  should  be  the  last 
Gentile  world  power;  that  in  the  closing  hours 
of  this  age  Rome  should  be  revived  under  the 
form  of  ten  democratic  kings,  five  in  what  waS' 
once  the  western  empire  and  five  in  the  eastern; 
that  this  revival  and  division  would  come  about, 
not  only  by  war,  but  by  the  uprising  of  the  peo- 
ple who  should  elect  the  kings;  that  due  to  the 
state  of  anarchy  more  or  less  ruling  throughout 
the  territory  a  mystic  person  continually  fore- 
told in  Scripture  should  arise  and  become  the 
accepted  head  of  these  kings  and  kingdoms,  tak- 
ing His  place  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords;  that  he  should  be  the  last  Kaiser;  that 
he  is  the  man  of  sin,  a  pro  Christ,  an  Alter 
Chrisfus. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         707 

When  the  mask  is  off  and  the  features  seen  we 
know  him.  He  is  the  Devil's  Son,  the  Devil's 
man,  the  fulfihnent  of  the  Devil's  long  ambi- 
tion and  aim.  He  and  the  revived  Roman  Em- 
pire are  the  consummation  of  tht  gestation  of  sin. 
He  and  the  empire  stand  in  contrast  to  Christ 
and  Flis  Church.  This  political  combination, 
this  confederation  of  kings  is  the  system,  the  evil 
body  in  which,  and  this  man  the  evil  head 
through  whom,  the  Devil  finds  his  way  to  imitate 
the  incarnation  of  God's  Son  and  by  this  great 
counterfeit  become  the  accepted  God  of  the 
world. 

He,  the  Devil's  man,  will  restore  the  Jews  to 
their  own  land.  He  will  set  up,  as  you  have 
heard,  the  Jewish  State.  He  will  offer  himself 
to,  and  be  accepted  by,  the  Jews  as  their  political, 
if  not  real  Messiah. 

He  will  make  a  treaty  with  them  for  seven 
years.  Af  the  end  of  three  years  and  a  half  he 
will  break  the  treaty.  Under  the  hardening  judg- 
ments of  God  he  will  become  their  persecutor. 
He  will  bring  in  the  Great  Tribulation  which 
the  Lord  has  said  will  be  unparalleled  in  its 


7o8         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

horror.  The  world  never  saw  anything  like  it 
before,  and  never  shall  again. 

In  his  madness,  a  demonized  man,  Devil- 
filled  and  Devil-crazed  he  will  rush  with  his 
army  to  Jerusalem.  Like  Julian  of  old  he  will 
seek  at  one  fell  blow  to  wipe  out  and  destroy 
every  remaining  tradition  of  Christianity.  He 
will  seat  himself  in  the  temple  he  has  permitted 
the  Jews  to  rebuild.  He  will  declare  man  to  be 
the  highest  expression  of  the  God  idea  in  the 
universe.  He  will  claim  to  be  the  super  man, 
above  all  other  men  and  the  perfect  and  final 
representation  of  the  God  idea.  He  will  op- 
pose all  other  idea  of  God.  He  will  show  him- 
self that  he  is  God.  He  will  set  up  his  image, 
his  effigy.  He  will  set  it  on  the  battlements,  that 
is,  the  pinnacles  of  the  temple  in  full  view  of  the 
people.  He  will  demand  that  men  shall  pay 
homage  to  it;  not  in  a  mere,  vulgar,  coarse,  idol- 
atrous way,  but  as  an  expression  of  their  faith  in 
him  and  their  belief  in  the  deity  of  man. 

In  worshipping  him,  they  will  be  exalting  hu- 
manity in  themselves. 

Now  will  come  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise 
and  prophecy  made  in  Eden. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         7^9 

It  was  affirmed  the  serpent  should  bruise  the 
heel  of  the  woman's  seed  and  the  seed  of  the 
woman  should  bruise  the  serpent's  head. 

The  serpent  with  his  seed  or  system  did  bruise 
the  heel  of  the  woman's  seed,  there  at  the  cross. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  even  though  God  the 
Son,  God  of  God,  and  very  God  of  very  God, 
was  clothed  with  a  humanity  in  which  He  could 
die.  While  it  is  true  He  offered  Himself  as 
a  sacrifice  for  sin;  while  it  is  true  no  one  took 
His  life  from  Him;  while  it  is  true  He  dis- 
missed His  own  spirit.  His  human  spirit,  and 
thus  acted  in  dying,  yet  as  He  made  use  of  the 
instrumentality  of  the  men  who  crucified  Him; 
so,  in  some  mysterious  way  He  made  use  of  the 
Devil  of  whom  it  is  said  he  had  *'the  power  of 
death,"  and  thus  at  His  own  determination  and 
will  was  bruised  by  the  serpent. 

The  hour  is  coming  when  He  will  bruise  the 
head  of  tl]e  serpent,  that  head  and  front  of  of- 
fending who  is  none  other  than  the  man  of  sin, 
the  Anti-Christ. 

I  have  told  you  the  Lord  is  Coming  as  the 
stone  cut  out  of  the  mountains  without  hands 


7IO         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

which  fell  upon  the  feet  of  the  image  and  broke 
it  in  pieces. 

He  is  Coming  to  Jerusalem  to  overthrow  this 
man  and  his  blasphemous  and  political  confed- 
eration. 

I  have  in  these  sermons  continually  described 
the  Coming  of  the  Son  of  God  in  glory.  I  have 
said  to  you  my  vocabulary  is  exhausted.  It  is. 
I  am  a  beggar  for  words.  It  would  be  impos- 
sible for  me  to  represent  this  apocalyptic  splen- 
dor, the  consummation  triumph,  unless  I  could 
talk  in  the  parabolic  phrase  of  sun,  of  system,  of 
nebulae  and  constellation;  unless  I  could  speak 
to  you  in  the  hallelujah  chorus  of  angel  choirs 
and  clothe  my  thoughts  in  all  the  colorful  beauty 
of  the  throne  encircling  iris;  unless  I  could  .so 
describe  the  Son  of  God  Himself  till  you  should 
see  Him  through  the  transparency  of  the  terrible 
crystal  and  from  His  face  there  should  blaze  the 
radiance  of  His  unmixed,  essential  glory  that 
should  make  suns  and  moons  and  stars  and  all 
the  light  of  Heaven  as  no  more  than  darkling 
shadows  beneath  His  feet. 

I  cannot  more  describe  it. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         7 1 1 

But  the  Lord  will  come  with  all  His  saints 
and  the  innumerable  hosts  that  have  been  wait- 
ing since  the  first  birth  hour  of  the  world  for  this 
anticipated  moment. 

The  Mount  of  Olives  will  cleave  in  twain  at 
the  touch  of  His  feet.  One-half  of  the  moun- 
tain will  roll  back  like  a  fold  to  the  north,  the 
other  half  to  the  south.  There  shall  be  a  very 
great  valley  for  the  gathering  of  the  saints. 

At  the  word  of  the  Lord  the  Devil's  incar- 
nation and  his  false  priest  shall  be  cast  into  the 
fiery  gulf  that  will  open  in  the  valley  of  Ge- 
hinnom. 

He  will  send  an  angel  to  lay  hold  on  Satan, 
bind  him  and  cast  him  into  that  underworld 
whither  he  has  caused  multitudes  to  descend. 

Then  will  come  the  judgment  on  the  armies 
of  the  nations  gathered  there. 

You  will  remember  that  after  the  translation 
of  the  Church  to  Heaven  the  Lord  will  send  out 
elect  and  converted  Jews  to  preach  the  Gospel 
of  the  kingdom  and  to  announce  the  Coming  of 
the  true  Messiah,  the  true  God  of  all  the  earth. 
Any  one  among  the  armies  of  the  Anti-Christ 
who  may  have  given  to  such  a  Jew  nothing  more 


712         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

than  a  cup  of  cold  water  will  be  spared  and  per- 
mitted to  remain  in  the  coming  kingdom;  but 
the  rest  will  melt  away  as  wax  before  the  sun,  or 
as  the  wind-swept  chaff  that  is  devoured  by  flame 
and  fire. 

The  Jews  gathered  from  every  quarter  of  the 
world  will  fall  down  before  the  Lord  in  bitter- 
ness of  soul.  They  will  ask  Him  (as  the  question 
shall  be  asked  a  false  prophet)  whence  came 
the  wounds  they  see  in  His  hands.  He  will  tell 
them  He  received  them  from  their  fathers,  from 
the  blind  and  unbelieving  house  of  Israel.  They 
will  repent  with  lamentations  and  tears. 

A  fountain  will  be  opened  in  Jerusalem  for 
uncleanness  and  sin.  He  will  Himself  be  that 
very  fountain.  He  will  pardon.  He  will  for- 
give. 

They  will  take  up  the  fifty-third  chapter  of 
Isaiah  and  cry: 

"We  hid  as  it  were  our  faces  from  him;  he 
was  despised,  and  we  esteemed  him  not. 

"Surely  he  hath  borne  our  griefs,  and  carried 
our  sorrows:  yet  we  did  esteem  him  stricken, 
smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted. 

"But  he  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions, 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         7^3 

he  was  bruised  for  our  iniquities:  the  chastise- 
ment of  our  peace  was  upon  him;  and  with  his 
stripes  we  are  healed. 

"All  we,  like  sheep,  have  gone  astray;  we 
have  turned  every  one  to  his  own  way;  and  the 
Lord  hath  laid  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all." 

This  will  indeed  be  repentance  unto  life  and 
salvation. 

This  will  be  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  that 
the  Deliverer  should  come  to  Sion  and  turn 
away  ungodliness  from  Jacob. 

The  Lord  will  receive  them. 

If  in  the  wisdom  and  foreknowledge  of  God 
the  "casting  of  them  away"  has  been  the  "recon- 
ciling of  the  world,"  the  receiving  of  them  again 
can  be  nothing  less  than  "life  from  the  dead." 

There  in  this  new  conformation  of  the  Mount 
of  Olives  the  Lord  will  make  unto  all  the  people 
a  feast  of  fat  things.  He  will  swallow  up  death 
in  victory*.  He  will  wipe  av/ay  tears  from  off 
all  faces  and  the  rebuke,  the  shame  and  stigma 
that  has  been  upon  the  Jew  will  He  take  away 
from  all  the  earth. 

Filled  with  joy  and  gladness  this  repentant 
and  now  regenerated  people  shall  cry  aloud; 


VH         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

*'Lo  this  is  our  God;  we  have  waited  for 
Him,  and  He  will  save  us:  this  is  the  Lord;  we 
have  w^aited  for  Him;  we  will  be  glad  and  re- 
joice in  His  salvation." 

At  the  head  of  His  redeemed  nation  and  amid 
the  gaze  of  the  encircling  hosts  of  Heaven,  in 
the  fellowship  of  that  Church  that  long  before 
had  owned  and  followed  Him,  He  will  enter  in 
kingly  triumph  into  Jerusalem. 

It  will  be  the  true  and  anti-typical — Palm 
Sunday. 

Then  as  written  in  the  twenty-fourth  Psalm 
the  voices  shall  cry: 

"Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates;  and  be  ye 
lift  up,  ye  everlasting  doors;  and  the  King  of 
glory  shall  come  in." 

From  within  the  gates  of  the  city  voices  reply 
and  ask: 

"Who  Is  this  King  of  glory?" 

And  the  full  and  choral  answer  v\^ill  come  as 
when  the  sea  breaks  all  its  thunders  on  the 
shore: 

"The  Lord  strong  and  mighty,  the  Lord 
mighty  in  battle. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         7 1 5 

"Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates;  even  lift 
them  up,  ye  everlasting  doors;  and  the  King  of 
glory  shall  come  in." 

The  atmospheric  heavens  that  now  surround 
the  earth  are  full  of  dust,  bacteria  and  every 
germ  of  disease  and  death. 

With  a  word  the  Son  of  God  will  cause  them 
to  roll  away  and  in  their  stead  shall  be  a  new 
atmosphere  which  like  a  crystal  river  shall  pour 
its  waves  of  life  around  the  far-flung  circumfer- 
ence of  the  earth. 

Through  its  pure  transparence  there  shall  be 
seen  shining  in  its  golden  glory  that  holy  city, 
that  promised  "place"  in  the  third  heavens 
whither  our  Lord  went  two  thousand  years  ago 
to  prepare  for  His  Church. 

Into  this  city  whose  glory  and  wonder  can 
alone  be  described  in  terms  of  gold,  of  jasper, 
of  pearls,  of  precious  stones  and  cloudless  light 
the  main  body  of  the  Church  shall  return. 

Those  who  at  the  previous  judgment  seat  of 
reward  have  been  noted  for  special  faithfulness 
in  this  hour  of  the  Lord's  absence  will  remain  on 
earth.  They  will  enter  into  the  "joy  of  the  Lord," 


7i6         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

even  into  this  kingdom  which  is  to  be  His  reward 
as  well  as  theirs.  They  are  to  be  His  associated 
rulers  and  administrators  in  the  new  day  that  is 
to  dawn  upon  the  earth. 

A  mighty  river  will  break  out  from  the  tem- 
ple area  of  Mount  Zion  and  flow  down  to  the 
Dead  Sea,  changing  it  into  a  lake  of  fresh,  trans- 
parent water.  The  whole  country  through 
which  the  river  shall  pour  itself  will  be  made 
beautiful  and  fruitful  as  the  garden  of  the 
Lord. 

Jerusalem  shall  be  rebuilt  and  made  resplen- 
dent. It  shall  be  built  unto  the  Lord.  It  will 
be  His  throne  and  dwelling  place. 

To-day  its  ancient  foundations  are  sunken  deep 
beneath  the  accumulated  debris  of  centuries; 
but  the  promise  of  God  long  ago  given  by  His 
prophet  Jeremiah  is  that  this  shall  be  cleared 
away,  the  old  stones  with  their  hewers'  marks 
shall  be  uncovered  and  once  more  as  the  prophet 
says,  the  city  shall  be  builded  "upon  her  own 
heap." 

"It  shall  be  built  from  the  tower  of  Hananeel 
unto  the  gate  of  the  corner,"  and  the  measuring 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         71? 

line  shall  go  forth  from  Gareb  to  Goath.  It 
shall  be  so  built  that  never  more  will  it  be 
"plucked  up,"  nor  "thrown  down"  by  the  hand 
of  man. 

The  great  temple  will  be  erected. 

It  will  be  set  up  according  to  the  plan  laid  out 
in  the  closing  chapters  of  the  prophet  Ezekiel. 

Sir  Inigo  Jones,  the  great  English  architect, 
once  declared  should  the  temple  really  be  built 
according  to  the  lines  there  laid  down,  the  struc- 
ture would  rise  in  such  proportions  of  beauty, 
majesty  and  resplendent  glory  that  the  wonder 
of  it  would  fill  the  earth. 

When  the  city  has  been  built,  the  temple  fin- 
ished and  the  vast  "suburbs"  or  gardens  designed 
of  the  Lord  shall  encircle  Jerusalem,  the  city, 
"beautiful  for  situation,"  will  indeed  be,  "the 
joy  of  the  whole  earth." 

Many  years  ago  when  I  went  to  Rome  and 
across  the'wide  and  historic  campagna — beyond 
the  ruins  of  gigantic  aqueducts  and  under  the 
blue  sky,  shining  white  and  towered  and  glisten- 
ing on  her  ancient  hills  of  seven,  and  against 
the  background  of  purple-tinted  mountains,  for 


7  1  8         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

the  first  time  I  caught  a  view  of  the  eternal  city, 
involuntarily  I  cried  aloud,  "Rome,"  and  felt  a 
quivering  thrill  in  all  my  pulses.  Some  Italians 
by  my  side  rose  and  with  voice  of  exultation,  of 
pride,  of  triumph  and  seeming  adoration  cried 
out  involuntarily  even  as  I  had  done,  but  more 
softly  in  their  native  tongue,  "Roma." 

When  the  multitudes  of  pilgrims  shall  come 
from  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  to  visit  and 
worship  the  Lord  in  Jerusalem,  to  fall  down  be- 
fore Him  as  Thomas  did  and  say,  as  he  did,  "My 
Lord  and  my  God";  when  they  get  their  first 
glimpse  of  the  holy  city  they  will  cry  out  ere  they 
know  it : 

"The  Lord  is  there." 

Yes,  that  will  be  the  name  of  the  city;  as  it 
is  written : 

"The  name  of  the  city  from  that  day  shall  be 
THE  Lord  is  there." 

He  of  whom  men  have  dreamed,  whom  men 
have  denied,  whose  very  existence  has  been  ques- 
tioned, whose  form  has  been  sought  amid  the 
clouds  and  far  stars,  He  will  be  there  In  all  the 
fulness  of  His  godhead  bodily,  In  His  deity,  His 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         719 

humanity,  the  mighty  God,  the  Son  of  God,  Son 
of  Mary,  Son  of  Man  and  Prince  of  Peace. 

And  the  heart  of  multitudes  will  throb  and 
the  lips  will  give  utterance  to  poeans  of  praise  as 
they  cry : 

"The  Lord  is  there." 

It  will  be  as  when  the  mariner  on  tempest- 
tossed  sea  after  long  days  and  nights  of  weary 
vigil  sees  the  distant  shore  break  into  view  and 
cries,  "the  land,  the  land." 

It  will  be  as  when  dying  with  thirst  in  sandy 
deserts  men  see  the  clear  and  flowing  stream  and 
cry,  "water,  water." 

O,  the  multitudes  as  they  see  the  wondrous 
city,  the  glorious  temple  and  breathe  the  pure 
and  health-giving  air  will  cry: 

"The  Lord  is  there." 

That  will  be  the  name  of  the  city: 

^^Jehovah  Shammah — The  Lord  is  there." 

The  Lord  will  remember  His  covenant  with 
all  Israel,  with  the  ten  tribes  as  well  as  the  two, 
with  Ephraim  as  well  as  with  Judah.  For 
twenty-five  hundred  years  their  identity  has 
been  lost  amid  the  nations  of  the  East  whither 


720         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

they  were  carried.  They  have  never  been  hid- 
den from  His  eyes.  By  the  exercise  of  His  om- 
nipotent power  He  will  reveal  them  to  the  world 
and  to  themselves.  He  will  call  them  out  and 
separate  them  as  the  fine  gold  is  separated  from 
the  dross.  With  His  own  stretched-out  hand 
He  will  gather  them;   as  it  is  written: 

'Tor  thus  saith  the  Lord,  Sing  with  gladness 
for  Jacob,  and  shout  among  the  chief  of  the 
nations:  publish  ye,  praise  ye,  and  say,  O  Lord, 
save  thy  people,  the  remnant  of  Israel. 

"Behold,  I  will  bring  them  from  the  north 
country,  and  gather  them  from  the  coasts  of  the 
earth,  and  with  them  the  blind  and  the  lame,  the 
woman  with  child  and  her  that  travaileth  with 
child  together:  a  great  company  shall  return 
thither. 

"They  shall  come  with  weeping,   and  with 
supplications  will  I  lead  them:    I  will  cause 
them  to  walk  by  the  rivers  of  waters  in  a  straight 
way,  wherein  they  shall  not  stumble;   for  I  am« 
a  father  to  Israel,  and  Ephraim  is  my  firstborn. 

"Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  O  ye  nations, 
and  declare  It  In  the  Isles  afar  off,  and  say.  He 


The  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         721 

that  scattered  Israel  (the  ten  tribes)  will  gather 
him,  and  keep  him,  as  a  shepherd  doth  his  flock." 
(Jeremiah  31 :  7-10.) 

He  will  bring  them  into  the  land  of  Palestine. 
They  shall  no  longer  be  two  nations.  They  shall 
no  longer  be  separate  peoples,  the  one  wanderers 
among  the  Gentiles,  and  the  other  sunken  in 
them  as  those  who  be  in  their  graves.  They  shall 
be  one  nation  upon  the  mountains  of  Israel;  as 
it  is  written: 

"Thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  Behold,  I  will 
take  the  children  of  Israel  from  among  the 
heathen  whither  they  have  gone,  and  will  gather 
them  on  every  side,  and  bring  them  into  their 
own  land: 

"And  I  will  make  them  one  nation  in  the  land 
upon  the  mountains  of  Israel;  and  one  king 
shall  be  king  to  them  all;  and  they  shall  be  no 
more  two  nations,  neither  shall  they  be  divided 
into  two  kingdoms,  any  more  at  all."  (Ezekiel 
37:21-22.) 

According  to  His  promise  the  Lord  shall 
make  them  the  head  and  no  longer  the  tail  of 
nations.    They  shall  be  above  only  and  not  be- 


722         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

neath.  They  shall  be  plenteous  in  goods,  in  the 
fruit  of  the  body,  in  the  fruit  of  cattle,  in  the 
fruit  of  the  ground.  The  Lord  shall  open  to 
them  the  good  treasure  of  heaven,  to  give  them 
rain  in  season  and  to  bless  all  the  work  of  their 
hands.  They  shall  lend  to  the  nations  and  not 
borrow;  and  all  the  people  of  the  earth  shall  see 
that  they  are  called  by  the  name  of  the  Lord; 
that  they  are  a  redeemed,  a  regenerated  and  a 
holy  people. 

The  twelve  apostles,  themselves  Jews,  will  be 
their  rulers,  administrators  and  judges,  accord- 
ing to  the  promise  which  the  Lord  Himself 
promised:   as  it  is  written: 

'T  appoint  unto  you  a  kingdom  as  my  Father 
hath  appointed  unto  me; 

"That  ye  may  eat  and  drink  at  my  table  in  my 
kingdom,  and  sit  on  thrones,  judging  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel."    (Luke  22:  29-30.) 

The  Lord  will  take  His  seat  in  the  temple. 

He  will  sit  there  as  Son  of  Abraham. 

As  the  Son  of  Abraham  He  is  the  covenant 
owner  and  possessor  of  the  land. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         723 

In  the  far  away  centuries  God  made  the  cove- 
nant with  Abraham;  as  it  is  written: 

"Unto  thy  seed  have  I  given  this  land,  from 
the  river  of  Egypt  (from  the  Nile)  unto  the 
great  river,  the  river  Euphrates."  (Genesis  15: 
.8.) 

And  writing  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  the  Gentile  believers  in  the  Church  at 
Galatia,  the  Apostle  Paul  says: 

"Now  to  Abraham  and  his  seed  were  the 
promises  made.  He  saith  not,  And  to  seeds,  as 
of  many;  but  as  of  one,  And  to  thy  seed,  WHICH 
IS  Christ."    (Galatians  3:  i6.) 

He  will  sit  in  the  temple  as  the  Son  of  David. 

As  the  Son  of  David  He  is  the  heir  of  David's 
throne;  as  it  is  written: 

"He  shall  be  great,  and  shall  be  called  the 
Son  of  the  Highest:  and  the  Lord  God  shall 
give  unto  him  the  throne  of  his  father  David: 

"And  he  shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob 
for  ever;  and  of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no 
end."     (Luke  1:32,  33.) 

He  shall  sit  in  the  temple  as  the  Son  of  the 
Virgin  Mary. 


724         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

As  the  Son  of  the  Virgin  Mary  He  shall  be 
Jesus  still,  He  who  shall  save  His  people  Israel 
from  their  sins:   as  it  is  written: 

"She  shall  bring  forth  a  son,  and  thou  shalt 
call  his  name  jESUS :  for  he  shall  save  his  people 
from  their  sins."     (Matthew  i :  21.) 

He  shall  sit  in  the  temple  as  the  Son  of  Man. 

As  the  Son  of  Man  He  is  the  supreme,  the 
final  Judge;   as  it  is  written: 

"For  as  the  Father  hath  life  in  himself;  so 
hath  he  given  to  the  Son  to  have  life  in  himself; 

"And  hath  given  him  authority  to  execute 
judgment  also,  because  he  is  the  Son  of  man." 
(John  5:26,  27.) 

He  will  sit  in  the  temple  as  the  Son  of  God. 

As  the  Son  of  God,  He  will  be,  God  the  Son, 
avouched  as  such  by  the  Father  and  proclaimed 
the  eternal  and  righteous  king;  as  it  is  written: 

"But  unto  the  Son  he  saith,  Thy  throne,  O 
God,  is  for  ever  and  ever:  a  sceptre  of  righteous- 
ness is  the  sceptre  of  thy  kingdom."     (Hebrews 

1:8.) 

He  will  take  upon  Himself  His  office  as 
Teacher. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         7^5 

He  will  teach  this  Old  Book,  the  Bible. 

What  a  spectacle  that!  What  dynamic  of 
suggestion!  What  a  commentary  on  some  men 
in  the  pulpit,  the  recent  graduates  of  modern 
theological  schools  or  those  resident  in  their 
atmosphere  and  overcome  by  them;  men  who 
have  little  place  in  their  ministry  for  the  Bible 
except  as  a  storehouse  for  texts  with  which  to 
prove  to  their  own  satisfaction  and  the  undoing 
of  the  faith  of  others,  that  it  is  not  the  inspired, 
infallible  Word  of  God.  What  a  commentary  on 
the  men  who  have  gone  through  the  Bible  and 
are  ready  to  accept  any  authority  as  final  but 
that: 

He  will  teach  the  Bible  as  we  have  it  to-day. 

Pie  will  justify  the  cosmogony  of  Moses  and 
verify  the  forecast  of  all  the  prophets. 

He  will  make  His  face  to  shine  from  the  dull- 
est page  till  the  simplest  lines  shall  be  as  a  flood 
of  effulgent  and  apocalyptic  glory. 

He  will  take  His  listeners  over  the  hallowed 
ground  of  His  earthly  life;  to  Bethlehem  where 
He  was  born,  to  the  place  of  the  wayside  khan 
wherein  He  lay  the  night  the  angels  sang.     He 


726         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

will  take  them  to  Olivet  where  His  soul  seemed 
to  ooze  from  His  body  in  the  blood  of  agony; 
and  He  will  show  the  place  of  His  cross  where 
He  died  and  paid  the  ransom  of  a  world. 

He  will  point  out  the  true  and  holy  sepulchre 
from  whence  He  arose  true  God  and  real,  im- 
mortal man. 

The  Word  of  the  Lord  shall  go  forth  from 
Jerusalem. 

It  will  be  a  worldwide  evangelism. 

Redeemed  and  regenerated  Israel  will  be  the 
ministers;   as  it  is  written: 

"Ye  shall  be  named  the  priests  of  the  Lord; 
men  shall  call  you  the  ministers  of  our  God.'* 
(Isaiah  6i :  6.) 

With  their  polyglot  tongue  they  shall  carry 
the  tidings  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

The  very  name,  the  very  word,  "Jew,"  will 
lend  honor  to  him  who  wears  it. 

Men  of  the  nations  will  seek  out  him  who  is 
called  a  Jew  that  they  may  learn  the  things 
of  God. 

The  nations  of  the  earth  will  look  upon  a  Jew 
as  the  depositary  of  divine  truth  and  will  seek 
them  out;  as  it  is  written : 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         727 

"Men  shall  take  hold,  out  of  all  languages  of 
the  nations,  even  shall  take  hold  of  the  skirt  of 
him  that  is  a  Jew,  saying,  we  will  go  with  you; 
for  we  have  heard  that  God  is  with  you." 
(Zechariah  8:  23.) 

Isaiah  tells  us  that  "all  nations"  shall  flow 
unto  Jerusalem.  They  will  come  from  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth  to  behold  the  Lord, 

The  universal  and  perfected  means  of  com- 
munication will  flash  the  news  to  every  hamlet, 
to  every  spot  where  human  beings  dwell. 

All  shall  come  to  know  the  Lord  is  in  His 
holy  temple.  All  shall  know  it  from  the  least 
unto  the  greatest. 

As  the  result  of  His  presence  and  the  outpour- 
ing of  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  own  and  con- 
fess Him  vast  multitudes  shall  be  genuinely  re- 
generated and  made  one  with  Him. 

As  a  result  of  this  universal  change  in  man, 
this  coming  in  of  a  new  nature  and  the  domina- 
tion of  the  divine  spirit  in  the  heart  and  con- 
science, self-interest  in  its  selfish  and  aggressive 
form  shall  be  dethroned.  As  a  consequence  of 
this  denial  of  self  as  an  aggressor  against  an- 


72  8         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

Other,  envy  and  jealousy  will  be  like  serpents 
with  their  stings  extracted.  War  will  come  to 
an  end.  Men  will  no  longer  butcher  each  other 
for  an  imagined  right  or  wrong.  The  fields  will 
no  longer  be  sown  with  the  dragons'  teeth  of 
hate.  Blood  will  not  drench  the  earth,  nor  slain 
men's  bones  fertilize  the  grave-filled  soil. 
Swords  v^ill  be  beaten  into  plough  shares,  spears 
into  pruning  hooks,  nation  shall  no  more  lift 
up  sword  against  nation.  They  shall  learn 
war  no  more.  Colleges  and  schools  to  train  men 
in  the  art  of  war  will  cease  to  have  either  stu- 
dents or  teachers.  All  the  material  of  war  will 
be  converted  into  instruments  of  peace  and 
means  for  conserving  and  not  for  destroying  life. 
The  sound  of  trumpet  and  of  drum  will  be 
hushed  and  the  tramp  of  marching  feet  no  more 
be  heard. 

Individual  land  ownership  will  be  abolished. 

There  will  no  longer  be  such  a  monstrosity  on 
God's  fair  earth  as  of  one  man  owning  thousands 
of  acres  and  another  not  even  enough  of  ground 
to  be  buried  in;  one  man  worth  millions  and  an- 
other worth  nothing;    one  man  able  to  gratify 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER        7^9 

every  desire  and  without  an  effort,  and  another 
with  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  the  weariness  of  his 
body  and  the  ache  of  both  heart  and  brain  scarce 
able  to  meet  his  minimum  need. 

The  day  of  graft  and  syndicate  privilege,  the 
conspiracy  of  the  few  against  the  many  will  be 
over. 

There  will  be  but  one  ownership  of  land,  the 
ownership  of  the  Lord. 

Round  the  wide  earth  the  proclamation  of  the 
twenty-fourth  Psalm  will  be  repeated: 

"The  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness 
thereof;  the  world  and  they  that  dwell  therein." 

All  property  will  be  held  in  trust  from  the 
Lord. 

Each  individual  will  be  a  tenant  of  the  King. 

Each  man  will  be  given  a  home;  as  it  is  writ- 
ten: 

"They  shall  sit  every  man  under  his  vine  and 
under  his. fig  tree;  and  none  shall  make  them 
afraid." 

There  will  be  competition  among  men,  but  it 
will  be  a  competition  in  righteousness,  in  devo- 
tion to  God.    It  will  be  a  competition  in  which 


73°         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

he  who  is  most  filled  with  truth  and  holiness 
and  love,  love  to  man  and  love  to  God,  ever  ex- 
panding and  deepening  love  to  God  through 
ever  expanding  and  deeper  love  to  man;  he 
who  seeks  most  in  all  things  to  please  the  Lord, 
shall  be  most  exalted,  most  renowned.  It  will 
be  a  competition  in  which  the  success  and  en- 
richment will  be  measured  not  in  land,  but  in 
love,  in  spiritual  life,  in  soul  dominion. 

The  ban  will  be  taken  ofif  the  earth. 

For  six  thousand  years  it  has  been  under  the 
original  curse. 

The  earth  is  a  deep  and  fruitful  matrix.  It 
is  filled  with  seed.  It  is  ever  in  travail,  ever  it 
seeks  to  bring  to  the  birth.  Were  it  not  re- 
strained and  hindered  and  held  in  check  it  would 
bring  forth  in  such  abundance  that  neither  ache 
of  back  nor  sweat  of  brow  would  be  required  to 
reap  and  eat  and  drink  of  all  the  wealth  of 
bounty  it  could  bestow. 

But  God  ordained  its  fruitfulness  should  be 
limited. 

The  sin  of  man  had  brought  the  seed  of  woe 
and   filled    earth's   flanks   with    evil    and   with 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         731 

poisonous  things.  Henceforth  there  should  be 
weeds  and  briars  and  thorns  and  trailing  vines  to 
strangle  and  choke  the  good  seed,  to  dwarf  and, 
kill  the  fruit.  < 

No  care  is  needed  for  these  hindering  things. 
Weeds  and  thorns  and  poisonous  vines  will  come 
up  in  the  night.  They  will  grow  in  the  desert 
and  flourish  in  the  flinty  rock;  but  if  you  would 
have  the  good  seed  grow,  you  must  toil  and  labor 
and  water  it  with  your  sweat  and  encourage  its 
tardy  growth  with  your  painful  care.  Rain  or 
drouth,  chill  winds  and  frost  will  little  hinder 
the  worthless  thorns  and  weeds;  but  the  good 
seed  must  be  shielded  from  burning  sun,  from 
torrential  rain,  from  mildew,  from  blast,  from 
east  winds  that  blow  unwelcome  storms  and 
from  insects  which  like  heartless  marauders,  like 
the  enemy  in  the  dark,  go  forth  to  spoil  with 
bite  and  sting  the  hoped-for,  toiled-for  yield. 

But  in  this  new  day  the  ban  will,  indeed,  be 
lifted,  and  then  will  the  desert  blossom  as  the 
rose,  the  orchards  will  bend  low  with  freighted 
fruit,  the  vines  will  hang  their  purple  clusters  in 
the  sun,  the  earth  shall  be  as  the  Paradise  of 
God,  and  man  its  happy  keeper. 


732         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

Once  a  year  the  nations  will  be  under  bond  to 
send  their  representatives  to  Jerusalem  to  return 
thanks  for  fruitful  fields  and  unfailing  seasons. 

It  will  be  true,  and  real,  and  universal  Na- 
tional Thanksgiving. 

There  will  be  no  sickness,  no  disease. 

And  this,  primarily,  because  the  Devil  will  be 
bound. 

Sickness  comes  from  the  violation  of  God's 
will  in  mind,  in  soul  and  body.  This  violation 
is  stirred  by  Satan.  He  is  its  inspiration  and 
cause.  But  Satan  himself  has  the  direct  power 
of  disease  as  he  also  has  the  power  of  death. 

This  is  taught  by  our  Lord  in  the  case  of  the 
woman  who  was  so  bowed  and  bent  with  a  spirit 
of  infirmity  that  for  eighteen  years  she  had  been 
unable  to  lift  herself  up.  The  Lord  healed  her 
on  the  Sabbath  day,  and  when  the  ruler  of  the 
synagogue  protested,  the  Lord  answered  and 
said: 

"Ought  not  this  woman,  being  a  daughter  of 
Abraham,  whom  Satan  hath  bound,  lo,  these 
eighteen  years,  be  loosed  from  this  bond  on  the 
sabbath  day?" 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         ^ 

But  Satan  will  be  bound  for  a  thousand  years. 

During  his  incarceration  in  the  pit  there  will 
be  no  sickness  nor  disease  among  men.  The  in- 
habitants of  the  land  shall  not  say,  "I  am  sick.'^ 
The  atmosphere  as  the  river  of  life  shall  bathe 
the  bodies  and  invigorate  the  soul. 

Doctors  and  undertakers  will  lose  their  func- 
tion. 

There  will  be  no  more  outbreaking  of  sin  and 
violence. 

There  will  be  no  need  of  police,  no  judges,  no 
courts,  nor  prisons,  nor  hangman's  rope,  nor  elec- 
tric chair. 

The  Lord  Himself  will  rule. 

He  will  rule  in  righteousness. 

He  will  rule  with  a  rod  of  iron. 

He  will  dash  in  pieces  and  break  all  opposi- 
tion as  a  potter's  vessel. 

He  will  put  down  all  rule  and  authority. 

He  will  reign  as  the  Prince  of  Peace;  but  it 
will  be  a  reign  based  on  righteousness  and  law. 

The  righteousnes  and  the  law  will  be  inex- 
orable. 

If  any  one  shall  tell  a  lie  he  shall  die  in  his 
tracks;   as  it  is  written: 


734         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  xAFTER 

"He  that  telleth  lies  shall  not  tarry  in  my 
sight."    (Psalm  loi :  7.) 

Human  life  will  be  prolonged. 

There  will  be  no  more  an  "infant  of  days." 

Infancy  will  not  be  spoken  of  in  the  term  of 
days. 

The  sinner  who  dies  a  hundred  years  old  will 
be  considered  an  infant;  but  he  will  die  ac- 
cursed. His  death  will  be  the  sign  and  seal  of 
God's  judgment. 

Consider  what  this  prolongation  of  human  life 
will  mean. 

What  a  development  there  will  be  of  the 
knowledge  and  powers  of  man. 

Imagine  what  an  effect  this  prolongation  of 
life  and  health  would  have  had  upon  such  an 
one  as  Shakespeare  or  Bacon. 

Take  some  of  our  great  inventors,  let  them 
live  five  hundred  years,  who  can  tell  the  out- 
come of  their  ever  developing  genius? 

And  the  fact  that  always  out  of  the  earth  new 
things  can  be  taken,  always  fresh  discoveries  are 
made  of  hitherto  unknown  forces  and  laws  and 
energies,   the  exhaustlessness  of   nature's   treas- 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         735 

ures,  all  these  things  prove  that  the  earth  was 
not  made  for  a  man  of  sixty  or  seventy  years, 
but  for  men  who  could  live  forever. 

For  a  thousand  years  this  government  of 
Christ  shall  last. 

A  thousand  years  in  which  every  problem 
will  be  solved. 

Human  life  will  no  longer  be  judged  as  brief, 
uncertain,  a  mystery  and  inadequate. 

Government  will  no  longer  be  built  on  the 
sword,  cemented  by  blood,  throbbing  with  hate, 
pulsing  with  fear  and  ruled  by  oppression,  but 
a  government  of  God  administered  by  the  hands 
of  a  righteous  man  who  Himself  is  very  God. 

A  thousand  years  of  prolonged  life,  with  defi- 
nite aim,  the  revelation  of  truth,  the  fulness  of 
light,  of  knowledge  and  understanding,  the  ban- 
ishment of  sin,  sickness  and  natural  death,  com- 
pensation, satisfaction  and  a  limitless  future  for 
the  unfoldirrg  of  human  powers  and  human 
hopes. 

A  thousand  years  of  peace,  of  divine  glory  and 
ever-increasing  human  splendor. 

A  thousand  years  in  which  the  humanity  of 


73 6         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

Christ  will  continually  show  the  limitlessness  of 
its  resources,  its  infinite  union  with  Godhead 
and  interpenetration  by  divinity,  but  divinity 
which  never  mixes  with  or  changes  the  human- 
ity. 

A  thousand  years  in  which  the  deity  of  Christ 
is  ever  manifesting  itself  as  enthroned  in  His 
humanity  and  through  the  succeeding  years  pro- 
claiming the  unsullied  virginity  of  His  human 
mother,  proving  and  glorifying  the  infinite  be- 
getting of  His  infinite  Father. 

The  government  and  kingdom  of  the  thou- 
sand years. 

But  the  thousand  years  is  only  the  tiiite  limit 
of  the  kingdom. 

It  has  its  eternal  side. 

At  the  end  of  the  thousand  years  Satan  will  be 
loosed  from  his  prison. 

He  will  be  loosed  that  he  may  test  the  world. 

He  is  like  acid  upon  metal. 

In  spite  of  himself  he  is  the  revealer  of  the 
true  by  revealing  the  false. 

In  this  immense  moment  of  test  it  will  be 
found  that  a  great  multitude  who  lived  under 


The  thousand  years  and  after      737 

the  law  of  righteousness  all  these  years  and  had 
their  lives  prolonged  were  never  regenerated; 
never  actually  accepted  the  Lord.  They  sur- 
rendered to  Him  simply  as  the  conquered  yield 
to  the  conqueror. 

Scripture  speaks  of  them  continually  as  those 
who  have  ^'feigned  faith." 

In  spite  of  a  thousand  years  of  righteousness 
and  peace;  in  spite  of  all  the  benefits  they  en- 
joyed, they  are  not  of  God,  have  not  His  life  and 
the  moment  restraint  is  off  and  the  opportunity 
given  they  rebel  and  come  against  the  holy  city 
and  its  Holy  King. 

It  is  a  fearful  proclamation  of  the  unchange- 
ableness  of  human  nature. 

It  is  the  revelation  and  pilloring  of  evolution 
as  the  great  and  all  Satanic  lie,  the  lie  that  has 
deceived  and  is  fooling  the  souls  of  men  to-day. 

Fire  from  Heaven  falls  upon  them  and  de- 
stroys thefn. 

Satan  is  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire,  the  never 
dying,  eternal  suffering  prisoner  of  state. 

The  Great  White  Throne  is  set. 

The  final  assize  is  on. 


738         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

The  Son  of  God  takes  His  place  as  the  su- 
preme Judge  of  human  kind. 

The  Christless  dead  of  all  ages  are  raised,  even 
those  whose  bodies  have  just  been  slain  by  fire. 

They  will  be  judged  and  tried  on  many  counts. 

All  idolaters  will  be  judged  and  witnessed 
against  by  the  handiwork  of  God  in  the  wide 
creation.  The  flaming  sun  of  day,  the  burning 
stars  of  night,  the  whirling  earth  in  its  change 
of  seasons  all  proclaim  the  one  mind,  the  one 
will,  the  one  thought,  the  one  thinker  behind  it 
all,  the  eternal  God — and  render  each  image 
worshipper,  each  follower  after  a  strange  god 
without  excuse. 

Men  will  be  judged  according  to  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  age  in  which  they  lived. 

They  will  be  judged  byr 

The  Theophanies  of  Christ. 

By  the  ministry  of  angels. 

By  the  law. 

By  the  manifestation  of  God  in  the  flesh — 
Christ  at  His  first  advent. 

By  the  Gospel. 

By  the  thousand  years. 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         739 

None  will  be  found  to  have  his  name  in  the 
book  of  life. 

The  sentence  of  death  originally  passed  upon 
them  will  be  reaffirmed. 

They  will  die  the  second  time. 

They  will  die  by  fire! 

From  this  second  death  there  is  no  resurrec- 
tion. 

They  will  be  disembodied  souls. 

They  will  be  sent  out  into  the  wide  universe, 
into  the  "outer  darkness." 

They  will  be  as  "wandering  stars,  to  whom  is 
reserved  the  blackness  of  darkness  forever." 

They  shall  wander  through  this  unlit  dark- 
ness of  eternity  as  derelicts  of  humanity,  tossed 
upon  an  endless  and  shoreless  sea;  souls  that 
have  missed  the  purpose  for  which  created — 
union  and  fellowship  with  God. 

The  earth  will  then  be  subject  to  purifying 
fire.  The  very  heavens  shall  be  as  a  winding 
sheet  of  flame.  Every  stain  of  sin,  every  mark 
of  evil,  every  scar  of  wrong,  every  memory  of 
unrighteousness,  every  trace  of  pain,  of  sickness, 
of  sorrow,  of  death  and  the  grave  will  be  washed 


740         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

away  by  this  all-cleansing  flood  of  elemental  and 
judicial  fire.  The  earth  will  not  be  destroyed. 
It  will  be  made  new. 

It  will  be  renewed.  As  there  has  been  a  re- 
generation of  the  soul,  3.  regeneration  of  the 
body,  so  will  there  be  a  regeneration  of  the  earth. 
In  the  old  creation  God  began  with  the  earth, 
then  the  body  of  man  and  after  that  the  soul. 
In  the  new  creation  He  begins  with  the  soul, 
refashions  the  body  and  the  earth.  Made  new 
and  beautiful,  clean  and  holy,  it  will  be  lifted 
into  the  center  of  all  the  universe.  Already 
our  solar  system  is  sweeping,  astronomers  tell 
us,  with  accelerating  speed  toward  that  star- 
less, that  "empty  place"  in  the  North  of  which 
Job  ages  ago  before  telescopes  were  known  so 
accurately  and  scientifically  spoke. 

The  earth,  redeemed,  regenerated,  made  pure 
and  holy  will  now  be  handed  by  the  Son  back  to 
the  Father.  God  shall  get  His  own  world  again 
as  it  was  in  that  original  creation  recorded,  not 
in  the  second,  but  in  the  first  verse  of  Genesis. 
It  will  be  the  same  world,  but  that  same  world 
with  plus — plus  a  race  of  redeemed  and  glori- 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         741 

fied  men,  one  time  sinners,  lost  and  undone,  but 
now  filled  with  eternal  life,  made  sons  of  God 
and  forever  more  the  trophies  of  infinite  love,  of 
measureless  grace  and  that  divine  wisdom  which 
found  a  way  whereby  God  could  be  just  and  yet 
the  justifier  of  the  ungodly,  justifying  every  one 
who  should  believe  in  Jesus. 

A  world  of  saved  men,  the  center  of  the 
amazed,  the  adoring  gaze  of  the  measureless 
hosts  of  Heaven,  glorifying  God  because  of  the 
OMNIPOTENCE  OF  LOVE.  A  world  upon  which 
the  angels  of  God  shall  look  with  rapturous  joy, 
repeat  and  proclaim  to  Heaven's  remotest  bound 
the  all-embracing  truth — GOD  IS  LOVE — Father, 
Son  and  Holy  Ghost— GoD  IS  LOVE. 

The  holy  city,  the  new  Jerusalem,  the  Church 
as  the  Tabernacle  of  God  shall  descend  into  the 
regenerated  earth. 

The  Lord  Himself  will  take  up  His  abode 
among  men. 

As  He  has  revealed  God  to  be  Redeemer  and 
Saviour,  King  of  righteousness  and  truth.  He 
will  now  reveal  Him  in  all  His  fulness  as  the 
Father.    He  will  be  in  His  own  person  the  Fa- 


742         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

ther  of  the  everlasting  age;  so  that,  in  Him  the 
Christian  may  behold  the  Father's  face  and  hear 
His  voice;  and  yet,  find  Him  to  be  this  same 
Jesus,  our  great  God  and  Saviour  in  v^hom  shall 
continue  to  dwell  all  the  fulness  of  the  deity 
bodily. 

The  earth  shall  be,  no  longer  the  footstool,  but 
the  throne  of  God. 

The  whole  universe  will  swing  about  this 
radiant  center,  looking  with  adoring  wonder 
upon  Jesus,  the  Christ,  the  Son  as  the  revelation 
of  the  infinite  God,  the  disclosure  of  His  heart. 

The  redeemed  shall  be  men. 

They  shall  be  God-men. 

There  shall  be  no  longer  the  organized  dis- 
tinction among  men  known  as  nations. 

Nations  are  for  administration  and  govern- 
mental  restraint. 

Nations  bear  witness  of  the  presence  of  sin, 
needing  restraint. 

There  will  be  no  sin  and  therefore  no  need  of 
human  government  restraint. 

Israel,  however,  will  be  retained  In  national 
form,  not  for  administration  of  government,  but 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         743 

as  a  memorial  of  the  days  of  time  and  the  nation 
specially  chosen  of  God. 

The  order  of  the  Eternal  State  will  be: 

The  Father. 

The  Son. 

The  Church. 

Israel — the  memorial  nation. 

Men. 

The  condition  of  life  is  described  in  Holy 
Writ: 

"The  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  he 
will  dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  his  peo- 
ple, and  God  himself  shall  be  with  them,  and 
be  their  God. 

"And  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from 
their  eyes;  and  there  shall  be  no  more  death, 
neither  sorrow,  nor  crying,  neither  shall  there 
be  any  more  pain:  for  the  former  things  are 
passed  away." 

Eternity  has  opened  for  man. 

God  and  man  are  in  partnership  forever. 

God  and  man  and  God  in  man  rule  the  uni- 
verse. 

The  hideous,  ages  long  nightmare  of  sin  and 
rebellion  is  over. 


744      the  thousand  years  and  after 

God  is  all  in  all. 

There  is  only  one  word  to  describe  this  KING- 
DOM OF  God. 

That  word  is  "INCREASE." 

"Of  the  increase  of  His  government  and  peace 
there  shall  be  no  end." 

The  government  of  Him  who  while  David's 
Lord  is — David's  God. 

No  END,  only  INCREASE,  always  increasing,  al- 
ways unfolding  fresh  wonders,  fulfilling  that 
immense,  measureless  promise  made  to  the 
Church  and  always  to  be  realized  in  and  by  the 
Church  first,  in  which  "in  the  ages  to  come." 
God  will  "Shew  the  exceeding  riches  of  His 
GRACE,  IN  His  kindness  toward  us  through 
Christ  Jesus." 

This  is  the  eternal  future  for  all  who  own  and 
confess  Jesus  Christ  crucified,  dead,  buried, 
risen  again,  ascended  to  Heaven  and  now  seated 
at  the  right  hand  of  God  the  Father;  all  who 
own  Plim  as  Redeemer,  Saviour  and  Lord. 

The  prelude  to  this  immense  kingdom  and 
glory  of  God  may  take  place  at  any  hour  by  the 
secret,  sudden  descent  of  the  Lord  into  the  air 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         745 

and  the  calling  up  thither  of  His  true  and  re- 
deemed Church. 

If  the  Lord  should  come  to-night  those  of  you 
who  have  not  accepted  and  owned  Him  would 
be  left  behind  to  woe,  to  anguish,  to  the  final 
second  death,  to  eternal  disembodiment  and  ban- 
ishment in  the  endless  darkness  and  as  hopeless 
sufifering  wanderers  forever. 

This  is  my  last  sermon  of  the  series. 

During  ten  weeks  I  have  set  the  truth  before 
you  and  warned  you  of  coming  events  and  the 
only  way  of  salvation. 

How  shall  I  appeal  to  you  in  this  hour,  for 
now  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the  day  of  sal- 
vation. 

Shall  I  appeal  to  you  by  the  sorrows  of  eternal 
regret,  the  agony  of  eternal  remorse?  Shall  I 
appeal  to  you  by  all  the  ties  of  human  love;  by 
the  father  who  loved  you  and  stinted  himself 
for  you;*  by  the  mother  who  bore  you,  was  de- 
voted to  you  and  never  ceased  to  pray  for  you? 
Shall  I  appeal  by  the  little  child,  the  song  and 
the  sunbeam  in  your  life,  that  child  that  was 
taken  from  you,  dwells  in  Heaven,  but  whose  ab- 


746         THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

sence  has  made  your  home  empty?  Shall  I  ap- 
peal by  the  goodness  of  God ;  by  the  providence 
that  has  been  round  you  and  preserved  you  to 
this  moment?  Shall  I  appeal  by  the  wounds  of 
Christ? 

The  other  day,  over  there  in  the  trenches  a 
young  French  soldier  lay  dying  on  the  field 
where  he  fell.  He  heard  the  shouting  and  felt 
the  rush  as  the  column  swept  by.  He  raised  his 
head  and  asked  the  meaning  of  it.  They  told 
him  the  enemy's  lines  had  been  taken  and  the 
tri-color  was  waving  above  them;  as  he  fell 
back  into  the  death  that  waited  for  him  with 
his  last  breath  he  cried  aloud,  ''Vive  ha  France. 
I  have  not  died  in  vain." 

Will  you  let  Christ  die  in  vain? 

Shall  His  blood  be  shed  for  naught? 

I  can  make  no  more  appeal. 

You  remember,  do  you  not,  when  you  were  a 
boy,  when  you  were  tired  or  hurt,  how  good  it 
was  to  lean  your  head  against  your  mother's 
breast  and  feel  her  loving  arms  go  round  you, 
and  hear  her  gentle  words  that  bade  you  lie  still 


THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER         747 

and  rest  there  above  her  beating  heart,  beating 
for  you? 

They  say  among  the  last  words  soldiers  utter 
who  die  over  there,  not  mere  boys,  but  sturdy, 
brave,  heroic  men  is  the  one  word — ''Mother/' 

With  all  a  father's  sacrifice,  a  mother's  gentle- 
ness, the  eternal  God  wants  to  put  His  arms 
around  you  (those  arms  He  flung  out  wide  and 
had  them  nailed  on  the  cross  for  you).  He 
wants  to  put  His  arms  around  you,  caress  you, 
soothe  you,  calm  you.  He  is  saying  to  you  in 
soft,  persuasive,  sympathetic  tones,  "Come  unto 
Me  and  rest." 

All  that  is  required  of  you  is  to  yield  your- 
self, confess  your  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  the  eter- 
nal Son. 

Hear  my  last  words,  words  whereby,  if  you 
will  receive  them,  you  may  be  saved,  saved  now, 
saved  forever,  find  joy  in  God,  take  part  in  the 
coming  thousand  years  and  in  all  the  after 
eternal  glories. 

These  are  the  potent,  all-meaning,  all-saving 
words  for  you,  if  you  will. 

Hear  them  I  pray  you : 


74^        THE  THOUSAND  YEARS  AND  AFTER 

''If  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart  that 
God  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt 
be  saved/'    (Romans  lo:  9.) 


Date  Due 


*iii  ^-^  Si  jt'^'Thi'^^ 


14 


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